New Plan for a counter-proposal to make radical agricultural initiatives

The publication of the first report of the world biodiversity Council in an important Phase: Two people's initiatives, which want to protect the biodiversity on the Agenda of Federal politics. Both identify the agriculture as a major driver of biodiversity loss: the clean water initiative, which will only allow those farmers subsidies, without the use of pesticides and antibiotics, and the popular initiative for a Switzerland without synthetic pesticides, calls for a ban on the pesticides. The popular initiative have the potential to shake up the agriculture in its foundations. The farmer's Association is to be alerted.

The Parliament is likely to reject both initiatives. Still open, however, whether it is preparing a counter proposal, in contrast, as the Federal Council and the farmers ' Association propose. Next week, the Commission for economic Affairs and taxation (WAK) is the national Council . Delicacy of the task for the FDP seems to be-members in the CTE, above all, party President Petra Gössi: The FDP-based want to the majority of a pesticide ban in food production, according to the recently published FDP-environmental survey.

retail for a counter-proposal

For a counter-proposal to plead not only the left-green circles, but also the IG retail trade, Migros, Coop, Manor and Denner together, as well as the drinking water Association (SVGW) concerning the quality of drinking water in Switzerland. "We expect a workable counter-proposal, which leads to a reduction in the use of chemical-synthetic pesticides and antibiotics," says Aron Gfrörer from the IG detail trade. The proponents of such a solution, attest to the farmers a lot of progress in the effort to reduce the use of pesticides and to make the environment fairer and more efficient. However, there is still "an urgent need for action," as it is called, in a Letter to the WAK-members, the the is this newspaper. Have written it – in addition to the IG, the retail trade and the SVGW – the WWF and the Foundation for consumer protection.

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Per year in this country spread about 2000 tonnes of plant protection products. The sales have declined between 2008 and 2017 by almost ten percent. It is not yet clear, however, whether the risk posed to humans and the environment is decreased. To do this, you would have to analyze the risk of the individual substances – a step that the Federal government do now want to.

With an average of five kilograms per hectare of agricultural land, the consumption is significantly higher than that of comparable countries, such as Austria, it is said, in the Letter of the Alliance. Investigations by the Federal government show: residues of pesticides are found in groundwater, in intensive arable areas to 70 per cent of the measuring points over the prescribed maximum value. Also Swiss streams have too many pesticides in concentrations far in excess of the legal maximum values.

As one might look counter-proposal, is now detected for the first time. "The Federal government," said SP Vice-President of Beat Jans, "is to pull those pesticides out of circulation, the plants, animals and micro-organisms repeatedly interfere with, or measured in concentrations are too high." Of these, about 25 percent of the pesticides that would be affected Jans says. He proposes a new provision in the water protection act. Green-President Regula Rytz argued in addition for a statutory reduction plan and correction measures in the case of missed objectives for nitrogen consumption and the use of chemical-synthetic pesticides.

"The Federal government should pull those pesticides out of circulation, the plants, animals and microorganisms, repeatedly."Beat Jans, SP Vice-President

So the legal liability, arising say Rytz, and Jans. As a non-binding, they criticize, however, the action plan of the Federal Council, the application of pesticides, with a particular risk potential in the next ten years by 30 percent to reduce. The same criticism applies to those measures, which the Federal Council in the framework of the new agricultural policy starting in 2022 (AP22+), such as a reduction of the maximum allowed manure use per area.

The roadmap provides that the people's votes on the initiatives 2020, the Parliament of the AP22+ however, not until 2021. The initiative's opponents can desire the people with the promise of combat, you have to redeem later on. All Attempts to change this have failed up to now. At the last CTE meeting in April Rytz proposed to suspend the advice of the initiatives to the agricultural research Institute of the Federal government (Agroscope) have completed their investigations on the drinking water initiative. The Work, Rytz, are important contributions to the follow-up assessment. The request failed because of the resistance of the Bourgeois.

(Tages-Anzeiger)

Created: 06.05.2019, 22:07 PM