Germany’s agriculture ministry is pushing for more organic food in canteens and restaurants in a first step towards achieving the coalition’s 2030 goal of ensuring 30% of arable land is dedicated to organic farming.

At the end of 2021, Germany’s government coalition agreed that organic farming should account for 30% of arable land by 2030, surpassing the EU-wide target of 25%.

To achieve this goal, the agreement also provided for a future organic farming strategy. While this had already been presented in 2019 by former agriculture minister Julia Klöckner of the conservative CDU party, the new agreement put forward by the current government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz proposed to revise and expand the strategy to include the entire value chain.

At last week’s BioFach trade fair in Nuremberg, the State Secretary of the Agriculture Ministry, Silvia Bender, gave an update on the strategy’s progress.

“How and what we eat has far-reaching effects on the environment, biodiversity and climate in Germany and worldwide, on animals as our fellow creatures and, last but not least, on our health and well-being – that is why organic farming is needed,” Bender explained during the event.

At the same time, consumers need “more information” about how organic farming contributes to environmental and climate protection.