 From June 2000 to March 2001, Künast was co-chair of "Bündnis 90/Die Grünen" on the national level, together with Fritz Kuhn.Since her party at the time did not allow the combination of functions in the party and the government in one person, she resigned when she became Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the second government of Germany Gerhard Schröder in 2001.By naming someone with no experience in farming to head a ministry with such sweeping powers, Schröder was widely considered gambling that any loss of support among farmers would be more than compensated by support from ecologically conscious Germans alarmed by the discovery of mad cow disease.