Agriculture Act (Germany)
| Basic data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Agriculture Act |
| Short title: | LwG |
| Type: | Federal law |
| Scope: | Federal Republic of Germany |
| Legal matter: | Commercial law |
| References : | 780-1 |
| Issued on: | September 5, 1955 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 565 ) |
| Entry into force on: | September 6, 1955 |
| Last change by: |
Art. 358 Regulation of August 31, 2015 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 1474, 1526 ) |
| Effective date of the last change: |
September 8, 2015 (Art. 627 of August 31, 2015) |
| Please note the note on the applicable legal version. | |
The Agriculture Act was passed in 1955. The aim of the law is to enable agriculture to participate in the advancing development of the German economy and to ensure the best possible supply of food for the population. A further goal is formulated to bring the social situation of people working in agriculture into line with that of comparable professional groups.
activities
In order to achieve the objectives, it was prescribed for the first time in the Agriculture Act that the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forests annually report the operating results of representative farms, broken down according to farm size and type of business ( main , secondary or additional business; since reunification, also legal entities ) as well as economic systems . For this purpose, a system of 6,000 to 8,000 test companies was created, which initially voluntarily created proper bookkeeping with an economic approach and for which the costs incurred were reimbursed. From these results, the Federal Government has to prepare the report on the situation in agriculture , which was called the Green Report until 1971 (annually until 2007, every four years since the last change) . The text of the law stipulates that a statement must be made on whether a wage corresponding to the wages of comparable occupational and collective bargaining groups is achieved for the external and family-owned workers as well as an appropriate remuneration for the work of the manager with an appropriate return on equity in an average company could be. The law also demands that the government must state in the agricultural report how it intends to achieve this in the future if the goal of income parity formulated in the law has not been achieved in the past period ( Federal Law Gazette 1955 I p. 565 ).
Effects
In the 1950s, food security was at the fore of politics. Under Agriculture Minister Heinrich Lübke , in the course of the generally better economic situation in the beginning economic miracle, income parity with other working people became an important issue. As a result of the Agriculture Act, extensive subsidies for agriculture were decided. These became known under the name Green Plan . While the agricultural policy enforced by the law could definitely be described as protectionist with its bundled measures from market regulations and foreign trade protection, it ultimately led to an orderly structural change in agriculture. Even if smaller companies benefited the least from the subsidies from the start, in contrast to the Weimar Republic they did not feel helplessly exposed to politics. Although the family farm continued to be the guiding principle of politics, their number has steadily decreased. The declared goal of income equality has never been achieved so far. This is also based on the fact that no actionable claim arises from this law.
Individual evidence
- ^ Daniela Münkel , The Long Farewell to Agricultural Land, pp. 119f
- ^ Daniela Münkel, The Long Farewell to Agricultural Land, pp. 139f
- ↑ Konrad Hugo Jarausch , Hannes Siegrist: Americanization and Sovietization in Germany 1945-1970 , Campus Verlag, 1997, ISBN 978-3593357614 , p. 211 ( available online ), accessed on February 7, 2014
literature
- Daniela Münkel : The long farewell to the agricultural country: Agricultural policy, agriculture and rural society between Weimar and Bonn , Wallstein Verlag, 2000, ISBN 978-3-89244-390-2 ( available online )
