It was on September 5th, exactly 15 years ago, that the former Agriculture Minister, Renate Künast, presented an important organic driver to the public: the German organic certification “Biosiegel”. It was the beginning of a success story, according to the Association for the Organic Food Industry (BÖLW).
“The success of the Biosiegel is, on the one hand, due to the easy and uniform way to recognise organic products and, on the other hand, its use as a way to inform and educate people about the systems involved in organic farming. 15 years ago Germany made a huge leap in their policies to promote organic agriculture and organic food industry,” remembers Dr. Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein, chairman of the trade association BÖLW.
Although organic products aren’t a niche product for the speciality supermarket segment anymore, expansion is still on the agricultural and economic agenda of German and European governments, he emphasises. The German Council for Sustainable Development as well as the Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, Christian Schmidt, set the goal to increase organic farming by 20%.
“This goal is the right way forward on the road to a to truly sustainable, future-proof agriculture. It is the way to achieve many other important goals, such as biodiversity, climate change, water quality and flood prevention,” states Löwenstein , not without a warning to the responsible minister. “Just as with the Biosiegel 15 years ago, we now need new and powerful tools too. We support and actively participate in the minister’s new plan "future strategy for organic farming". However if the minister doesn’t provide additional funds before the kick-off year 2017, all our efforts are in vain. Then this potentially new huge leap will be only a hop, and all the possible achievements will be shifted to the second half of the century!”
Without sufficient funds the highly effective tools for the solution of urgent problems in agriculture, the environment and nutrition will remain unused. Therefore the German parliament should correct the Ministry of Agriculture and allocate a budget of 60 million Euros to the Federal Organic Farming Scheme and similar sustainable production programs (BÖLN), states Löwenstein.
For more information:
Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft e.V. (BÖLW)
Marienstraße 19-20
10117 Berlin
Phone +49 30 28482-300
Fax +49 30 28482-309
Email: www.boelw.de