Farmers' manifesto

Family farms protect soils from speculators

Farmers' manifesto eco-pioneers of yore (from left): Heilingbrunner, Dichand, Nenning

(Bild: Jöchl Martin/Martin Jöchl, Krone KREATIV)

On the initiative of "Krone" publisher Hans Dichand, the Farmers' Manifesto was once pinned to barn doors all over Austria tens of thousands of times! It is still a "protective shield" for all those family farms that protect land and soil.

Protectors of traditional farming once went from village to village, from barn to barn, to declare their support for local agriculture. Today, as then, the guardians of our land are threatened in their existence by powerful global corporations and Mercosur-style free trade agreements. The stirring manifesto was formulated by Hans Dichand, the great thinker DDr. Günther Nenning and the current Honorary President of the Environmental Umbrella Organization, Dr. Gerhard Heilingbrunner, and has lost none of its validity. It was still groundbreaking, and many a business was saved as a result.

This newly awakened spirit has lived on for centuries in family farms - whether peasant, monastic or aristocratic - which are far removed from one thing above all: speculation and millions in profits through perfidiously thought-out rededication and sealing.

(Bild: Rojsek-Wiedergut Uta/Uta Rojsek-Wiedergut)

President: "We are the true Greens"
"Our members are the true Greens. For many generations, they have cultivated meadows, fields and forests with the utmost sustainable care. Living nature conservation is a matter close to the heart of agricultural and forestry practice," assures Land- und Forst-Betriebe Österreich President Konrad Mylius. Owning land is not only a question of security and stability, but also of responsibility. Under the motto "Use nature, protect nature", family farms work in harmony with creation and thus make a decisive contribution to preserving biodiversity and adapting to climate change.

... and from today: Konrad Mylius (left) and Felix Montecuccoli. They all take up the cudgels for the country's family farms that look after the soil.

(Bild: Antal Imre/Imre Antal)

Former director of the Natural History Museum, Bernd Lötsch, ...

(Bild: Holl Reinhard/REINHARD HOLL)

What ennobles our farmers - they implement the ÖPUL environmental program voluntarily and on their own responsibility. A shining milestone: there are 84,000 hectares of biodiversity and nature conservation areas in Lower Austria alone. In addition, more than 500 renaturation projects have been successfully implemented with the support of state, federal and EU funding. The forest fund is another example of the commitment of forest owners to meet the challenges of climate change, such as the drought that is fueling the bark beetle infestation. The powerful Lower Austrian farmers' alliance Paul Nemecek and EU mandatary Alex Bernhuber are once again coming to the defense of family farms: "Our farmers are the true guardians of the fields and farmland."

We are committed to ensuring that healthy soils are passed on to future generations.

Markus Graf Hoyos zu Rosenburg und Horn

Bild: Moser Gabriele/Gabriele Moser

This makes Greenpeace boss Alexander Egit all the more fierce in his attack on rampant speculation and Agriculture Minister Totschnig's proposed soil protection strategy. "They are one thing above all - a toothless paper tiger. Once again, a non-binding strategy has been adopted. It contains many good and important measures. However, these have been known for a long time - but because there is no obligation, they are hardly being implemented." A strategy without concrete goals or obligations can never be effective and will not be able to solve the problems of land consumption. As reported, Egit is vehemently calling for "finally binding guidelines to which all municipalities and the federal states must adhere, instead of more nice-sounding declarations of intent".

Incidentally, our food retailers are wrongly criticized for destroying green spaces. Billa has launched a major renaturation program around the supermarkets - with the success that a zoological monitoring project led by Dr. Gernot Kunz from the Karl-Franzens University in Graz has shown that well over 1000 species, including plants and fungi, are thriving in the newly created flowering areas, some of which are highly endangered. The weevil (Lixus cinerascens), which was discovered here for the first time in Central Europe, may stand as an ecological symbolic animal