Farmers should also be allowed to use arable land intended for environmental protection, plus half a billion euros in aid. Criticism comes from environmentalists and the SPÖ.
In order to prevent even more people in the world from starving, farmers in the EU should be allowed to use arable land earmarked for environmental protection this year. It should be possible to grow food and feed there in future in order to increase production, according to the EU Commission on Wednesday. In addition, farmers in the EU are to be supported with almost 500 million euros. Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger (ÖVP) welcomed the project, but criticism also came from Austria.
This is to ensure that rising prices for fertilizer and fuel, for example, do not affect food security. Farmers who produce sustainably should have priority. The regulation is initially planned as an emergency plan for 2022, according to documents from the EU Commission.
Ukraine important grain producer
Because of the Russian war against Ukraine, devastating consequences are feared, especially for poorer countries. Ukraine and Russia are major producers of cheap grains – especially wheat. According to the EU Commission, the two countries together supply around 34 percent of the wheat for the world markets. Importers such as Yemen, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan and Nigeria are already severely affected by food insecurity.
“We welcome the step taken by the EU Commission to make the fallow land usable for the production of grain, maize and soya,” said Köstinger. Productivity would increase in this way and possible yield losses in the Ukraine or Russia could be cushioned somewhat. For Austria, this measure means that a good part of the approximately 9,000 hectares of fallow land that will be freed up will be made available for production. According to the politician, a corresponding regulation has already been prepared and will be implemented “as soon as possible”. Köstinger criticized that what is still missing is an EU protein strategy for protein feed in livestock farming.
“It is important that there is no overreaction at European level, there is no need for excitement and artificial scarcity scenarios from which a few would benefit from this war,” said SPÖ agriculture spokeswoman Cornelia Ecker. “I call on Minister of Agriculture Köstinger to work to ensure that more food grain is planted.” Too much grain ends up in the tank and on the plate.
Less feed, more food areas
Environmentalists from Global 2000 and Greenpeace criticized that the measure was being taken in the wrong places. “Around 95 percent of all agricultural land in the European Union is already being cultivated,” argued Greenpeace. “The small rest are valuable biodiversity areas and therefore indispensable habitats for wild bees, birds and Co.” The potential additional yields on EU agricultural land are minimal on a global scale. It would be more effective if less land was used for animal feed and more for food production. According to Greenpeace, 71 percent of agricultural land in the EU is used to feed animals.
The criticism expressed by some groups met with no understanding from the Chamber of Agriculture (LKÖ), which welcomed the EU Commission’s plan. President Josef Moosbrugger (ÖVP) is much more in favor of further measures at European and national level, according to a broadcast. “The majority of the environmental protection areas, namely those that are managed by 80% of the Austrian farms in a particularly environmentally friendly and biodiversity-friendly manner as part of the Austrian agri-environmental program (ÖPUL), will continue to be retained. This is the majority of the Austrian agricultural areas The area approval granted by the EU Commission, on the other hand, is only part of the ecological priority areas, which is something completely different. It is about 5,000 hectares, which can exceptionally be used to produce animal feed within the framework of this emergency measure in 2022”, like Moosbrugger.
When asked, the Ministry of Agriculture explained that a total of 9,000 hectares of fallow land was involved. The Chamber of Agriculture assumes that around 5,000 hectares of these 9,000 hectares can actually be farmed. The remaining areas are not economically usable at all.
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