Grüne on agriculture

The Greens want to strengthen regional production and marketing to counter the decline in farms, and to expand organic farming. Alongside the existing grazing premium, a herder premium would be introduced for keeping animals solely for landscape care and nature conservation.

Bremen has fewer and fewer farms. The Greens want to support local farms. There should be more organic farming. Farmers should get money when their animals look after the landscape. This is called a herder premium.

The platform cites a drop from more than 400 farms in the early 1990s to about 140 today. Cooperation with farmers and conservation groups would continue in the current EU funding period, and a development concept for agriculture would be drawn up with these groups. The grazing premium for organic pasture farming would stay. The herder premium is meant to let farmers leave food production while preserving the cultural landscape around the cities. The share of organically farmed land would rise from 32 to 50 percent by 2035.

The Greens want farm subsidies to reward services for the environment, the climate and animal welfare instead of being paid mainly by acreage. They plan to push at the federal and EU level for a points-based "common good premium." The platform calls this a central building block for funding the shift to a different kind of agriculture.

Today farmers get money mostly for the size of their land. The Greens want to change this. Farmers should get money for protecting nature and animals. There should be a new premium for this. A premium is a payment as a reward.

The platform calls for redirecting direct payments and sharply cutting premiums based purely on land area. At the federal and EU level, the Greens want a system change toward a points-based common good premium. For Bremen they announce new models: an eco premium for land that is ecologically upgraded and a shepherd premium for livestock used in landscape management and nature conservation. The reasoning given is that organic farming benefits soil, groundwater, biodiversity, the climate and animal husbandry.

The Greens want to set up a funding program with Lower Saxony for growing and processing (organic) vegetables and fruit in the region. They also want to support alternatives to dairy and meat production, more climate-friendly feeding and water protection. The platform cites climate adaptation and greater independence from global supply chains as reasons.

The Greens want more vegetables and fruit from the region. There should be funding for this, together with Lower Saxony. Farmers should choose to feed animals without soy from overseas. Groundwater should get cleaner. Farmers get advice on how to do this.

The joint funding program would also cover legumes and potatoes as well as processing. Pasture-based livestock farming in Bremen is to become more climate-friendly through farms voluntarily giving up soy and corn feed from overseas. Where local conditions allow, the Greens want to advance alternatives to dairy and meat, especially vegetable growing, and support approaches such as urban farming. The AUKM program is to fund gentler land use, efficient fertilizer application and water protection. To reduce nitrate in groundwater, the platform relies on alternative farming methods developed with farmers and on water protection advice.

The Greens want all public institutions to offer wholesome, organically produced vegetarian and vegan meals at fair prices. In hospitals, the share of organic food is to rise to 100 percent by 2027. The platform justifies this with health and the climate targets.

Public cafeterias should serve healthy food. The food should be organic and have little meat. It should not cost much. Hospitals should serve only organic food by 2027. Schools and daycare centers should get their own gardens.

All public cafeterias are to meet the standards of the German Nutrition Society (DGE) with few animal products, in the future also in Bremerhaven; compliance is to be checked especially in schools. Schools and daycare centers are to get gardens for growing food where space allows. A networking office for school meals is to be reestablished and also be open to nursing and retirement homes. The competence center "Forum für Küche im Wandel," the Biostadt Bremen project and the "Essbare Stadt" (edible city) program are to continue. Public institutions are also to source more products from the region.