Lübesse (dpa/mv) - Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Farmers' President Detlef Kurreck is expecting several hundred lawsuits from farmers against the new fertilizer regulations. A law firm is preparing class action lawsuits, Kurreck said on Thursday at the annual press conference of the State Farmers' Association in Lübesse (Ludwigslust-Parchim district). According to the ordinance, farmers may only give the plants on fields and meadows in areas with nitrate-polluted groundwater 80 percent of the nitrogen fertilizer they need.
It is often unclear where the nitrate pollution comes from and what time it came from, said Kurreck. The fertilizer ordinance is therefore a punishment for farmers whose land happens to be in polluted areas.
According to the ordinance, around a third of the agricultural land in MV is in so-called red areas with excessive nitrate pollution of the groundwater. The ordinance went into effect on February 1.
