“This endangers the food production of the next generations,” said Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens), who presented the 530-page book with Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) and the lead author Robert Jandl (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna) on an organic farm in Lower Austria .
The “Special Report Land Use and Climate Change in Austria” was written by the Austrian Panel on Climate Change (APCC). Jandl explained that 130 scientists examined land consumption in this country in connection with the climate crisis. The report clearly shows: “The massive destruction of valuable land is a threat to food security in Austria.” The study authors would therefore call for a more responsible use of soil as a resource.
“Completely stupid”
The land use in the Alpine republic is currently twelve hectares per day, which is equivalent to around sixteen football fields. “We have to stop destroying so much valuable soil,” said Gewessler: “Because potatoes and radishes don’t grow in a parking lot.” Kogler called it “completely idiotic” to build up soil in the country and to import food, which can no longer be grown here as a result, in usually not as high a quality.
The goal (for some time now) has been to reduce land consumption to two and a half hectares per day by 2030. “We will not let this happen,” said Kogler: “Austria is a country of fields (according to the national anthem, note), not a country of concrete. However, no new concrete measures were presented. Kogler, however, called it He described “individual federal states and also a few municipalities” as “resilient”.
Environmentalists are calling for an end to the blockades
In a press release, the environmental protection organization Greenpeace demands “that the federal states and the association of cities and municipalities end their blockade on soil protection and finally agree to a soil protection strategy with a fixed upper limit for land consumption.” The states must also “finally implement effective soil protection measures, such as mandatory land recycling.”
In addition to agriculture (and thus food security), biodiversity also suffers from excessive soil erosion, and the effects of the climate crisis are also increased as a result, according to the status report. As recommendations for action, he mentions inner-city densification instead of urban sprawl in the surrounding area, and a strengthening of sustainable agriculture that uses the soil in a resource-saving manner.
