Freie Wähler on agriculture

The Free Voters want to preserve family farming, including livestock, across Bavaria and thereby secure the domestic food supply. Red tape and requirements are to be reduced and tightened fertilizer rules reversed. On forests and hunting, the party rejects further set-asides, new national parks and stricter gun laws.

The Free Voters want to keep Bavaria's family farms. Farmers should have less paperwork. Stricter rules on fertilizer should be dropped again. There should be no new national parks. Hunters should be allowed to hunt wolves. Gun laws should not get stricter.

Livestock farming is to stay, including the combined tethering-and-pasture system for cattle, and EU farm policy is to continue with its two-pillar model. The party wants to reverse tightened fertilizer rules and handle the so-called red zones based on nutrient balances rather than blanket bans. The diesel tax refund for farmers is to remain, direct sellers are to face fewer rules, and food is to carry clear origin labels. Bavaria is to stay GMO-free, and the platform rejects patents on seeds, plants and animals. There are to be no further forest set-asides or national parks, and job cuts in state forestry offices are to stop. The wolf is to be included in hunting law, and gun laws are not to be tightened further for legal owners such as hunters and sport shooters.

The Free Voters want to preserve small and mid-sized farms and food businesses and expand direct sales. They want to take on dominant players in the food trade and better protect local producers from cheap imports.

The Free Voters want to keep small farms, butchers and bakers. Farmers should find it easier to sell their goods directly. The party is critical of cheap goods from abroad. Grazing animals should be protected from wolves.

Direct sales are to grow without excessive bureaucracy, and regional value chains are to be expanded. Producers should earn more, animal welfare and environmental standards should be rewarded, and origin should be clearly labeled. The platform targets market power in food retail, the slaughterhouse sector and the food industry. Pasture farming and on-farm or pasture slaughter are to increase. Pasture and free-range farms would be protected from wolves, and fish farms from otters.