Good agricultural practice
Good Agricultural Practice (often short- CAP for English Good Agricultural Practice ) refers to the Good practices in agriculture , particularly for land use and livestock. According to the EU , good farming practice is the normal standard of management that a responsible farmer would use in the region concerned. This is an indefinite legal term .
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines good agricultural practice as follows:
"Broadly defined, GAP applies available knowledge to addressing environmental, economic and social sustainability for on-farm production and post-production processes resulting in safe and healthy food and non-food agricultural products."
"Generally defined, GAP is the application of available knowledge to questions of ecological, economic or social sustainability, both in agricultural production and subsequent processing, which results in safe and healthy food and other agricultural products."
GAP includes aspects of food safety as well as environmental and animal welfare . Good agricultural practice defines a framework for the economically efficient production of high quality and safe food, while at the same time taking into account environmentally relevant aspects of agricultural production. The aim is the sustainable production of safe and healthy food.
The concept of good agricultural practice is specified in national and international agricultural law , for example in laws and ordinances from the plant sector (e.g. fertilizer ordinance , plant protection law , federal soil protection law ), animal husbandry (e.g. animal protection law , animal protection law) Livestock regulation , cattle traffic regulation ) and food safety (e.g. regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 ).
Important contents of good agricultural practice are:
- balanced and species-appropriate animal husbandry
- Documentation of the production method, especially in crop cultivation (e.g. field records), in animal husbandry (e.g. use of pharmaceuticals) and food safety (e.g. ensuring traceability )
- Fertilization and plant protection according to the principles of integrated, environmentally friendly cultivation
- Preservation of the natural soil fertility
- location-adapted management
- Protection of biotopes
- Protection of the grassland
Further compilations of the principles of good agricultural practice, taking into account the state requirements, have been drawn up by many private-sector organizations. They form the basis for various private-sector certifications of quality management systems (e.g. QS - Quality and Safety, GlobalGAP ) at the agricultural producer level.
Good professional practice in agriculture is legally anchored in Section 5 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG) and in Section 17 of the Federal Soil Protection Act (BBodSchG).