Photo: BMLFUW/Rita Newman
The manifold tasks of our farmers
In times of globalised economic and agricultural markets, globalised environmental problems and climate change many people wonder about their quality of life.Will we be able to lead a wholesome life in wholesome environs in the future? Who produces our food? Which nature will our children and future generations be able to live in?
In our days, intact bases of life and wholesome food meet with great interest. These commodities are supplied by our farmers.In Austria, 80 percent of the national territory are managed as agricultural and forestry land and tended as recreational areas. Although farmers are meanwhile a social minority, they bear high responsibility in preserving and tending nature.
Which tasks do our farmers fulfil for the community?
· They bear responsibility for about 80 percent of the federal territory, namely the areas used for
agriculture and forestry.
· They maintain and tend the attractive recreational landscapes.
· They cultivate extensively located areas and alpine pastures and thus maintain the century-old
cultural landscape of the alpine area.
· They keep settlement in mountain areas and less-favoured areas.
· They manage the major part of the Austrian forest and supply us with wood.
· By tending the protection, forests the population is protected against avalanches, mudflow and
other natural hazards.
· They ensure the conservation of soils and forests as well as the preservation of clean water and air. · They safeguard optimum supply of the population with high-quality, fresh food.
· They offer us regional delicacies, rare fruit and vegetable varieties and guarantee seasonal diversity
in our kitchens.
· They supply us with renewable energy like biomass and the resource wood.
· They invest and ensure jobs on farms, but also in downstream sectors like commerce, industry and
service companies.
· By securing jobs in rural areas they put a hold to rural exodus and commuter traffic.
For all these reasons, farmers are playing an important role in maintaining the bases of life that make Austria a place that much worth living in and experiencing.
22.08.2008, Lebensministerium Öffentlichkeitsarbeit