In view of the renewed debate about a so-called animal welfare levy, Thomas Schröder, President of the German Animal Welfare Federation, reiterates his call for the revenue from such a levy to be earmarked for investment in greater animal welfare in agricultural livestock farming. In a commentary, Schröder warns against debating this levy only as a measure to plug budget holes or to compensate for the cuts in agricultural diesel and vehicle tax in the agricultural sector.
"A so-called animal welfare levy can be a sensible step towards providing targeted support for farmers to invest in greater animal welfare in agricultural livestock farming. However, I warn against misusing this levy in the current debate to plug budget holes. The levy must generate additional funds because the state has not yet provided sufficient funding for barn conversions and greater animal welfare. In addition, the criteria for the use of the earmarked funds must be clarified as a matter of urgency.
If it is planned to use these funds for the conversion of the systems according to the state label for the "Stable" and "Stable+Place" stages, then this would be a misuse of this additional income. Because the "stall+place" system has nothing to do with animal welfare. The proposal put forward by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Minister of Agriculture, Till Backhaus, to cancel the 1 billion euro subsidy for barn conversions, which is already too low, and to compensate for and withdraw the planned cancellation of the agricultural diesel subsidy, is absurd and would mean an end to any necessary transformation of animal husbandry. On the occasion of the top-level talks with the German Farmers' Association on Monday, I expressly warn the traffic light parliamentary groups against acting in this way. If you want to plug budget holes, you can, for example, end the current subsidies for animal-based foods. According to the Federal Environment Agency, raising VAT on meat from 7 to 19 percent alone would bring in a total of 5.4 billion euros in additional revenue."
