INTERVIEW - German shadow minister wants farmers treated equally
Date: 09-Sep-02
Country: GERMANY
Author: Michael Hogan
"I want both sectors treated equally. I cannot look after three percent of the (organic) farmers and ignore the other 97 percent," Peter Harry Carstensen told Reuters in an interview.
He also said he is opposed radical changes to European Union agricultural subsidies before 2007 and saw the burning of rye to produce energy as a solution to Germany's huge over production of this unwanted grain.
Germany's ruling Social Democratic/Green coalition has promoted a huge expansion of organic farming as a key feature of its policy under Agriculture Minister Renate Kuenast from the Green Party.
Carstensen, named as shadow agriculture minister by conservative opposition leader Edmund Stoiber in late July, comes from a traditional farming background and farms in his home northern state of Schleswig-Holstein.
His opponents in the governing coalition, trailing in most opinion polls this year as the September 22 general election approaches, claim he wants to support more industrial farming.
"Absolute rubbish," Carstensen said.
"I do not have anything against bio production, I am pleased about any farmer who earns his money with organic production. But I oppose agriculture being divided between good bio producers and not-so-good conventional farmers."
Carstensen, a member of Germany's lower house of parliament since 1983 and currently chairman of its agriculture and consumer protection committee, said market forces should determine the level of organic farming and not the state.
"Frau Kuenast wants 20 percent bio farming by 2010. In my view we could have 10 percent or 30 percent by then, if there is consumer demand farmers will produce it," said said, adding the state was spending money building production in a sector when demand was uncertain.
"But the mistake is to use huge amounts of state money to achieve this. I calculate to achieve Frau Kuenast's 20 percent organic farming by 2010 Germany will have to pay 5.2 billion euros in subsidies."
MAJOR FOCUS
A major focus of his plans to help conventional farming is to push for EU-wide regulations governing issues like animal welfare and environmental protection among others.
"Such regulations can only be applied up to Germany's borders, but we have completely free trade, so produce can simply be imported from countries which do not have the same standards," Carstensen said.
"It is extremely important that when new measures are introduced for animal protection, environmental protection and consumer safety, they must be achieved Europe wide. We cannot have isolated national actions.
"What use is it to ban an insecticide in Germany which is used elsewhere in Europe to produce vegetables for sale in Germany. This does not mean we are going to allow many things again, it means we need unified rules," he said.
German egg producers will have to contend with cheap imports after battery hens are forbidden in Germany from 2006 and the rest of Europe from 2012, he said.
"East European EU candidate countries are buying up steel chicken cages in east Germany because they know they can have fantastic cheap egg production between 2006 and 2012 and sell them in the German market," he added.
EU SUBSIDY REFORMS
Carstensen believes no major changes to the EU's agricultural subsidy reforms should be imposed until the expiry of the present system, called Agenda 2000, on December 31, 2006.
This summer the EU proposed a series of reforms called the mid-term review of Agenda 2000, which it proposes should take force before the end of 2006.
"Farmers need planning security," he said. "They are businesses and must invest. Politicians cannot change the rules for businesses every couple of years, regardless of whether it is a farm, a hairdresser or a repair man."
He said the majority of other EU member states also oppose the commission's proposals.
BURN RYE MOUNTAIN IN POWER STATIONS
The EU also wants to remove rye from intervention subsidies. The EU
