Good agricultural practice
Good Agricultural Practice ( GAP often short for s. Good Agricultural Practices ) refers to the Good practice in agriculture, especially for land use and animal husbandry. According to the EU is good agricultural practice the standard of farming which would follow in the region concerned a reasonable farmer. It is a vague legal term.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO) defines good agricultural practice as follows:
" Broadly defined, GAP Applies available knowledge to addressing environmental, economic and social sustainability for on-farm production and post-production processes Resulting in safe and healthy food and non-food agricultural products. "
" Is defined in the General GAP applying available knowledge on issues of environmental, economic or social sustainability both in agricultural production and subsequent processing, resulting in safe and healthy food and other agricultural products. "
CAP includes, inter alia, aspects of food safety as well as environmental and animal protection. Good agricultural practice establishes a framework for the economically efficient production of high-quality and safe food, while taking into account environmental aspects of agricultural production. The objective is the sustainable production of safe and wholesome food.
The concept of good agricultural practice is elaborated in national and international agricultural law, eg in laws and regulations from the plant area (eg fertilizer ordinance, Plant Protection Act, the Federal Soil Protection Act), animal husbandry ( eg animal welfare law, animal welfare, animals ordinance, animal Transport Regulation ) and food safety (eg Regulation ( EC) No 178 /2002).
Important contents of the good agricultural practice are:
- Balanced and Animal Welfare
- Documentation of production, especially in crop production (eg arable field records ), in animal husbandry (eg, drug use ) and food safety (eg ensuring traceability )
- Fertilizers and pesticides according to the principles of integrated, environmentally friendly cultivation
- Conservation of natural soil fertility
- Site-adapted management
- Protection of habitats
- Protection of grassland
More compilations on Principles of good agricultural practice with the involvement of state guidelines have been developed by many private sector organizations. They form the basis for a variety of private-sector certification of quality management systems (eg QS quality and safety, GlobalGAP ) on agricultural production stage.
Enshrined in law is good professional practice in agriculture in § 5 of [ Federal Nature Conservation Act ] and in § 17 of [ the Federal Soil Protection Act ].