Last week, June 9th, 22, I had the pleasure of moderating a high-level discussion panel at the General Meeting of the German Potato Associations. The SPD member of the Bundestag Isabel Mackensen-Geis, the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU member of the state parliament Johannes Zehfuss and BMEL sub-department head Walter Dübner faced the questions of the potato industry and discussed on the panel with the DKHV President Thomas Herkenrath and the UNIKA Chairman Olaf Feuerborn.
Bottom line of the discussion: What can politicians do to give farmers and the receiving medium-sized potato industry more support under the constantly increasing pressure due to more and more requirements on the industry from the EU Green Deal, the goals of the new federal government and the Future Commission on Agriculture give? The discussants were able to make it clear to the politicians what effects this pressure has on people in this industry. Politicians, in turn, showed understanding, but could only confirm that they would take the issues with them to Berlin and bring them up there. For the representatives of the federal government, there is no alternative to the path of transformation of the agriculture and food industry.
True to the motto of the Federal Minister Cem Özdemir “Better, more sustainable, together” it was an event with knowledge gain at least on all sides.