Grüne on agriculture

The Greens want to boost demand for regional, organic and plant-based food from Bavaria and make Bio-Regio a standard label. In state-run cafeterias, at least half of the dishes are to be organic by 2025. Farmers should be able to make a reliable living from their work.

The Greens want more organic food from Bavaria. In state cafeterias, every second dish should be organic by 2025. There should be meat-free food everywhere too. Farmers should get fair prices. Long contracts with cafeterias should help farmers.

Regional processing and marketing are meant to keep value creation in the state. Long-term contracts and short supply chains are intended to make farms less dependent on international markets, for example through supply contracts with municipal and state cafeterias. A vegan and vegetarian option is to be available everywhere. For dairy farms, the Greens want to press dairies and food retailers for fair prices. The model is the family-run farm; farm takeovers and start-ups are to become easier for newcomers as well.

The Greens believe the statutory target of 30 percent organic farming by 2030 can be reached sooner and that even half of all farmland could be farmed organically. To get there, they want to fund long-term projects and strengthen organic farming in research and teaching.

By 2030, 30 percent of fields in Bavaria should be organic. That is already the law. The Greens want more: half of the fields should be organic. They want to fund organic projects for this. Half of the money for farm research should go to organic farming.

Funding is to go to organic model regions, farm cooperatives, producer-consumer communities, collectives and vegan-organic networks. At least 50 percent of agricultural research money is to benefit organic farming because, in the Greens' view, its methods also help conventional farms. Universities are to get enough professorships for organic farming and agroecology. Added to this are hands-on continuing education for farmers and support for organic training farms.

The Greens aim for agriculture without synthetic chemical pesticides and want glyphosate and neonicotinoids outlawed across Europe. At the same time, farms are to be paid better for nature, climate and species protection, and waters and soils are to be better protected.

The Greens want no chemical sprays on the fields. Two sprays should be banned in all of Europe. Farmers should get more money for protecting nature. Along streams and rivers there should be strips with no fertilizer. Fields and meadows should not be built over.

Research on agroecological crop protection is to get more funding. The Greens want to thoroughly overhaul the Kulturlandschaftsprogramm (KULAP, Bavaria's agri-environment scheme), focus it on measures with proven effect and fund it better. Near-natural buffer strips along waters, free of fertilizer and pesticides, are to become mandatory. Against nitrate in groundwater, the platform relies on strict checks of fertilizer use and on tying livestock numbers to land area. Programs for farmland are meant to stop more land from being sealed for roads, commercial zones or parking lots. A transformation grant is to support farms that try out approaches such as agroforestry or community-supported agriculture.

The Greens want Bavarian agriculture to stay free of genetic engineering and count new genomic techniques as genetic engineering too. They reject patents on seeds and animals; old varieties are to be preserved through a funding program.

The Greens want no genetic engineering on the fields. This also covers new gene methods. Food and animal feed made with it should be clearly labeled. Nobody should hold a patent on seeds or animals. Old plant varieties should be kept.

The platform calls for clear regulation of new genetic engineering methods. Food and feed produced using genetically modified organisms are to be clearly labeled. The Greens argue that agricultural genetic engineering changes ecosystems and makes farms dependent on patents and the agricultural industry. The platform regards seed as a common good that should remain freely available and reproducible, while respecting plant variety protection and the breeder's exemption. A funding program and closer cooperation with breeders' associations are meant to secure old, locally adapted varieties, without genetic engineering methods.

The Greens want livestock farming to be guided by the animals' needs and to increase funding for barn conversions. Husbandry levels 1 and 2 are to be phased out by 2035, pasture grazing expanded and antibiotic use sharply reduced.

The Greens want farm animals to have a better life. Farmers get money for better barns with more space. More animals should go out to pasture. The two lowest levels of animal keeping should be gone by 2035. Animals should get far fewer antibiotics.

A long-term strategy is meant to give livestock farmers planning certainty. Besides barn conversions, the ongoing extra costs of animal-friendly husbandry are to get more support, including a Ringelschwanzprämie (bonus for pigs with intact curly tails) modeled on Lower Saxony. The label "Geprüfte Qualität Bayern" is to include animal welfare criteria, and producers are to be connected with bulk buyers such as cafeterias and restaurants. Breeding of dual-purpose breeds will be supported and advisory services for farms expanded. Reserve antibiotics are no longer to be used in livestock farming in order to curb resistant germs.