AfD on agriculture

The AfD wants farmers to manage rural land on their own responsibility and rejects restrictions from the EU. It expects falling harvests due to limits on pesticides and fertilizer and sees domestic food supply at risk.

The EU makes many rules for farmers. The AfD does not want to accept these rules. Farmers should decide for themselves how they work. The AfD says there will otherwise soon be too little food from Germany.

The platform names affordable, high-quality food as the goal of agriculture. The AfD sees burdens in the Green Deal, decarbonization, and the energy transition. In its account, expanding organic farming also leads to lower yields. Land management should take municipal requirements and nature conservation into account.

The AfD wants to target support at small and mid-sized farms by making area payments shrink as farm size grows. It also wants to cut administrative requirements for small farms and support young farmers. The platform argues that family farms are being pushed out by agricultural corporations and land speculation.

The AfD wants to help small farms. Small farms should get more money per acre than big ones. There should be less paperwork for them. Young people should find it easier to take over a farm.

The platform calls for degressive area payments, meaning the per-hectare subsidy falls as a farm gets larger. Administrative requirements for small farms, for example in direct marketing, are to be slimmed down, and municipal charges on large plots are to be degressive. Farm roads are to be adapted to wider machinery, land consolidation sped up, and the double real estate transfer tax on pre-emption purchases or land swaps reformed. Productive land should not be set aside and should be paved over only in exceptional cases. For young farmers, the platform lists keeping four agricultural vocational classes, a mandatory farm internship in agricultural degrees, support for the rural youth association, and more funding for the 'farm as classroom' program.

The AfD rejects the rules proposed by the EU that would ban pesticides in certain areas and reduce fertilizer use. Fertilizing according to crop needs should not be restricted. The platform points to consequences for wine growing and to an endangered fertilizer supply.

The EU wants to ban pesticides in some areas. It also wants less fertilizer on fields. The AfD is against this. Farmers should be allowed to fertilize as much as the plants need.

The platform fully rejects the proposed ban on use in so-called sensitive areas and cites the effects on wine growing in the Rheingau and along the Bergstraße. The AfD considers nitrate fertilizer indispensable because natural fertilizer can only partly replace it. Environmental requirements for domestic potash mining are to be set jointly with producers so that production stays economically viable. Phosphate recycling is to be promoted as far as it makes economic sense.

The AfD wants to quickly privatize the state-owned Kloster Eberbach wineries together with their land. No wind turbines should be allowed within sight of the Rheingau and Bergstraße wine landscapes.

The state of Hesse owns wineries. The AfD wants to sell them quickly. There should be no wind turbines near the vineyards. The AfD says this protects the landscape.

The platform praises Hessian winegrowers for their wine and for maintaining the landscape. The Rheingau and Bergstraße cultural landscapes are to be protected by a ban on building wind turbines wherever they would be visible from there. The Kloster Eberbach state wineries and their land are to pass swiftly into private hands.

The AfD wants farmers to choose freely how their machinery is powered and wants farm vehicles to stay exempt from vehicle tax. Farms should get priority for electricity during shortages. The platform regards farmers as essential and battery-powered field vehicles as impractical.

Farmers should decide what powers their machines. Tractors should stay free of vehicle tax. If power is short, farms should get electricity first. The state should help pay for backup generators.

There should be no restrictions on the type of energy used for farm machinery; battery vehicles are deemed unsuitable because of their weight. Farms should get priority access to electricity when needed, since a long outage would endanger livestock operations and animal welfare. Backup generators and fuel storage are to be subsidized. The AfD rejects taxing agricultural and forestry vehicles, saying it would raise food prices. Biogas plants should use waste, and subsidies for fermenting food should end.

The AfD wants to support livestock farms and end any preferential treatment of vegetarian diets. Imported meat should be clearly labeled by husbandry method and origin. It wants to ban insect-based additives in food because it considers health questions unresolved.

The AfD wants to help farmers who keep animals. The state should not favor meat-free food. Meat from abroad should show where it comes from. The AfD wants to ban insects in food.

According to the platform, meat is part of German tradition, and whether to give it up is for consumers alone to decide. Livestock farming is described as part of a circular economy. Clear husbandry and origin labels on imported meat are meant to prevent competitive disadvantages for domestic farmers and the misleading of buyers. On the insect ban, the AfD cites open questions about allergies, heavy metals, diseases, and toxins. More generally, it calls for clearly visible labels on consumer goods that laypeople can understand.