Could Austria cover its need for food entirely from their own production? With meat and milk yes: the level of self -care is clearly more than 100 percent. It is 94 percent with grain.
But far away from nutritional sovereignty, Austria is falling on fruit and vegetables (48 and 58 percent), and the trend is falling further. On Tuesday, peasant and industry representatives warned on Tuesday in the farm of farmer Matthias Ecker in Eferding.
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In the corona crisis, a high level of security of supply with food was guaranteed, said Robert Pichler, chairman of the Vienna -based association “Business in the Land”, whose members are primarily producer associations: “But that is not a matter of course.” In the absence of profitability, the farms managed had dropped by seven percent since 1990, grassland areas by eleven percent.
Costs and crop protection
Thomas Krahofer, managing director of the processor Efko, and Ecker, chairman of the Upper Austria. Obst and vegetable recycling cooperative, criticized significantly increased production costs due to the still high energy prices and the high personnel costs, as well as the loss of pesticides. “There is a lot of commitment and manual work, especially in cultures like Gurker,” said Ecker. In plant protection, Austria is rigorous than Germany. Farmers’ youth spokeswoman Viktoria Hutter also referred to the problem of many pests: “It cannot be that important remedies without alternative are pulled out of circulation.”
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Image: EFKO
Source: Nachrichten
