AfD on agriculture

The AfD rejects the EU's Common Agricultural Policy and wants farm policy decided in Germany. Farmers are to get more entrepreneurial freedom, and rules and paperwork are to be reduced step by step. The platform justifies this with the independence of farms and secure pay for farmers.

The EU makes many rules for farming. The AfD rejects this shared farm policy. Germany should decide for itself. Farmers should be freer to run their farms. There should be fewer rules.

The platform opposes the EU's Green Deal, which the AfD says triggers redistribution and undermines Germany's self-determination. Market principles are to take priority in farming again. The AfD wants fair producer prices and a stronger market position for farmers, including through direct sales. Neither German nor EU authorities should interfere in how farmers work, for example in crop rotation. Before new farm policy measures are introduced, their effect on farmers' income and their ecological benefit should be checked; incentives are to replace bans.

The AfD wants farm subsidies geared to family farms and cooperatives and wants to make handing over a farm easier. Young farmers and people starting a farm are to be better off. Investors from outside agriculture are to find it harder to acquire farmland.

The AfD wants to strengthen family farms. Young farmers should get better conditions. People who start a new farm should pay less tax. Outside investors should find it harder to buy farmland.

Subsidies should recognize what family farms and cooperatives contribute and make farm succession simpler. Young farmers who work their own land are to be better off, and people starting a farm are to get tax relief. The AfD opposes the decline in farmland and wants to make the land market harder to access for investors without a farming background. For the so-called green professions it calls for practical training. The stated goal is to preserve diverse farm structures.

The AfD wants consumers to learn more about the origin, contents and quality of products and calls for clear labeling. It rejects special taxes on particular foods such as meat or sugar, arguing that citizens should not be told how to consume. The EU approval of insects in food is to be reversed.

The AfD wants clear information on products. Shoppers should know what is inside. There should be no special tax on meat or sugar. Insects in food must be shown clearly on the package. The AfD wants to stop insects in food altogether.

Products are to state contents and weight in relation to price to prevent deception. Added insects must be clearly declared; in general the AfD wants to undo the EU's approval of insects as food. It calls for an effective rapid alert system for food and animal feed and for fast, targeted action where there is a well-founded suspicion of harmful products or animal diseases. Traditional food culture is to be kept in public institutions, and people are to be informed about the risks of diets the platform describes as fashionable. The platform highlights regional and seasonal food from Germany.

The AfD wants to change current fertilizer rules so that farmers can again fertilize crops according to need. In the platform's view, today's rules reduce yields and harm the soil. The party supports research into new genomic techniques, but the use of genetic engineering in the field is to be strictly controlled.

Today there are strict rules for fertilizing fields. The AfD wants to loosen these rules. Farmers should give plants as much fertilizer as they need. The AfD supports research into new gene techniques. But on the field, the state should check gene technology strictly.

The platform blames current fertilizer rules for losses in yield and quality and for the loss of humus and soil fertility. Paperwork for fertilizing is to be kept as low as possible. The AfD calls effective crop protection an important factor in production. Farmers should be allowed to use and trade old crop varieties so that variety increases. The party wants to support research progress in methods such as CRISPR; in practice, genetic engineering is to be checked continually for its actual benefit.

The AfD rejects additional restrictions on commercial fishers and anglers that it regards as ideologically motivated. Small fishing businesses should be able to survive economically. Catch limits are to be set pragmatically.

The AfD does not want new strict rules for fishers. Anglers should not get stricter rules either. Small fishing businesses should not go broke. Fish stocks should still last for the long term.

The platform calls fishing a cultural asset. It rejects a ban on gillnet fishing in the Baltic Sea, larger core conservation zones, and catch quotas tied to an individual vessel. Competitive disadvantages for German fishing are to be removed. The AfD wants to achieve sustainability together with fishers and anglers so that stocks are preserved over the long term.