Grüne on agriculture

The Greens want farming to use significantly fewer pesticides, even after the EU extended the approval of glyphosate. Farms are to be supported in doing without chemical-synthetic products.

The Greens want less poison on the fields. Farmers should get help if they stop using chemical products. Authorities should check the use more closely.

The program plans to support alternative techniques and methods that can replace pesticides. Authorities are to be equipped so that they can inspect the use of pesticides and biocides and penalize violations. In addition, more regional and resilient seed and planting material is to be promoted.

The Greens want to develop organic farming further in line with demand and federal targets and to support farms that switch. Nitrate pollution in groundwater is to fall, and a humus strategy is meant to ensure healthy soils.

The Greens want more organic farming. Farmers get help when they switch. There should be less nitrate in groundwater. Nitrate is a substance from fertilizer. The soil should stay healthy.

The competence center for organic farming is to be strengthened. Small-scale fields and more structure in the landscape are to be subsidized in order to reduce erosion and water shortages. On nitrate, the program relies on transparency about the monitoring network; farms growing adapted crops in polluted areas are to get help with marketing, among other things. Pond farming is to be preserved.

The Greens want to achieve, at the EU level, a public-good premium with a simple points system that rewards farming's environmental services. Awarding the funds is to become simpler and red tape is to be cut.

Farmers get money from the EU. The Greens want this: Those who help the environment get points and money for them. The rules should become simpler.

Saxony is to keep providing its share of the financing for the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. For payments to farms, the party wants to cooperate with other German states. Accumulated red tape is to be identified and reduced.

The Greens want to expand regional food production and marketing and raise self-sufficiency, especially in vegetables. Daycare centers and schools are to serve considerably more food from organic and regional sources.

The Greens want more food from Saxony. Daycare centers and schools should serve more organic food from nearby. Regional markets should get help. Wine growing should also get support.

The Bio-Regio model regions and the agency for regional food (AgiL) are to be consolidated and supplemented with contact points in the regions. Slaughtering on or near the farm and weekly markets are to be supported. A pilot project for a healthy breakfast for all children at least in elementary school is to be examined. The party wants to promote community-supported agriculture, new cooperatives, urban gardening and forest gardens. In wine growing, steep-slope vineyards and climate adaptation are to be subsidized, and the state winery Schloss Wackerbarth is to become a testing and advisory operation.

The Greens take a critical view of genetic engineering of crops in agriculture because of possible risks to people and the environment. Instead, traditional and organic breeding methods are to be strengthened. The party wants to support the bioeconomy and its research.

The Greens are critical of genetic engineering in plants. They name risks for people and the environment. They prefer breeding plants in the usual way. Research on products made from plants should get money.

The alternative breeding methods are meant to help adapt plants to climate change, need fewer pesticides and raise yields. The bioeconomy is to be used for sustainable production of food and animal feed that is safe for health. The party wants to support new bio-based products and materials from farming, forestry and fishing.

The Greens want a Saxon farm structure law and rules on farm inheritance to curb high land prices, speculation and the disappearance of farms. In addition, start-ups, farm succession and recruiting skilled workers are to be supported, and farms are to be relieved of red tape.

Farmland has become expensive. The Greens want a law against this. It should protect farms. Young people should get help when they take over a farm. Farmers should have less paperwork.

Funding programs for start-ups and farm succession are to continue in a simple form, and a campaign for green professions is meant to attract young people to training. The competence centers for organic farming and for sustainable agriculture are to continue; farming that binds CO2 by building up humus is to be rewarded. Authorities are to be digitized in a way that relieves farmers, and inspections by different authorities are to be coordinated. A contact point is to take reports of state rules that do not work in practice.

The Greens want an animal welfare strategy for farm animals in Saxony that strengthens humane, land-based husbandry. Animal transports to countries outside the EU should be banned and regional slaughtering supported. A food strategy is meant to promote plant-based, seasonal and regional meals in public cafeterias.

The Greens want farm animals to live better. Animals should have more space and time outdoors. Animals should no longer be shipped to faraway countries. Cafeterias in schools and hospitals should serve more plant-based food from the region.

Barriers to keeping pigs outdoors should be lowered, and alternative forms such as pasture pigs on orchard meadows should receive funding. Exit funding programs are meant to help farms reduce large herds. Instead of transports to non-EU countries, regional slaughter facilities should be rebuilt, along with pasture shooting and on-farm and mobile slaughter. The food strategy targets cafeterias in state-run operations, hospitals, schools, daycare centers and prisons. Animal feed should come from domestic production rather than imports such as soy, which the platform says costs rainforest land.