Although more than half of Germany's land is used for agriculture, arable land for farmers is scarce and competition is fierce. In this podcast episode, Charlotte Thielmann from detektor.fm addresses the causes why it is becoming increasingly difficult for farmers to lease and cultivate affordable farmland and what this means for the transition to sustainable agriculture.

Landscape ecologist Timo Kaphengst from “Netzwerk Flächensicherung” explains how the principle of land cooperatives can help to give smaller and regional farms access to arable land. He further illustrates why access to arable land is a structural problem that is exacerbated by a lack of transparency in the allocation of land and the competition for land with non-agricultural actors.

Farmer Maria Natt and project manager Willi Lehnert from "Flächenplattform Brandenburg" report on how the mediation of land via an online portal has helped to address this issue.

As another guest of this podcast, Katrin Stary, managing director of "Berliner Stadtgüter", reports on the role the Berlin real estate company plays in the allocation of land and explains why it is important not limit the allocation of agricultural land to ecological agriculture.

The production is part of "Knowledge for Future – The Environment Podcast", which is a cooperation between detektor.fm and Ecologic Institute and regularly reports on good approaches to sustainable management.

You can find the episode "Ohne Ackerfläche geht gar nichts" on detektor.fm and on all popular streaming platforms (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Podcasts).