I haven’t found anything on this in the US press but think that this should be more widely known since it’s a huge win for biodiversity and also for grassroots organizing. So here goes…
Germany, like every other developed country has seen a massive decline in insect populations over the past decades. Industrialized agriculture with its heavy reliance on pesticides has led to a near collapse and mass extinction of insect species on an unprecedented scale — with consequences too dire to contemplate. More info here. And here. And governments, as usual, are doing nothing to stop this. Enter: The people...
Bavaria is the largest and traditionally very conservative state in Germany but with a state constitution that provides the opportunity for enacting legislation through referenda. The requirements for a successful referendum are quite high — in a first step, 10% of eligible voters need to sign the measure in person within a two week period. The referendum then has to be taken up by the legislature and either passed into law unmodified or, if the legislature refuses, be put to another referendum where a simple majority of all votes cast decides the matter. Yesterday saw the end of the initial signup period and from initial reports it looks like whopping 17% of eligible voters braved the atrocious February weather and easily put the referendum over its first hurdle.
What’s in the proposal? The main points are
- An increase in organic farming to 20% of all farming by 2025 and 30% by 2030
- Prohibition of the use of pesticides in all state owned lands
- Prohibition of the use of pesticides in all protected areas
- Conversion of 10% of all pastures into flowering meadows
- Protection of hedges, trees and small waters
- Designation of 13% of the entire state area into connected biotopes
- The teaching of nature preservation in schools
Policy wise, these are extremely ambitious measures that would drastically transform agriculture and the landscape of Bavaria in general. Politically, it will be very hard for the conservative state government to undermine this. The conservative prime minister — usually beholden to big agriculture who vociferously opposed the referendum — has already conceded defeat and announced to start discussions with the organizations behind the referendum. The fight is now on to make sure that the referendum either gets passed into law or even gets improved upon in the legislature.
The driving forces behind the referendum were a very small Green Party, the ÖDP (Ecological Democratic Party), the Green Party (which is the second strongest in the legislature), the organization for protecting birds and hundreds of smaller organizations ranging from organic farmers to beekeepers and organic supermarkets.
These are happy news that show that a determined group of dedicated organizations and people can enact real change from the grassroots lever up — even in a very conservative environment.