Protesters in Berlin call for an end to factory farming

[Robbien]

Source: Deutsche Welle

Several thousand people in Berlin on Saturday demonstrated for change in the agriculture industry, calling for non-toxic and environmentally friendly arable and animal farming, less industrial agriculture and more consumer protection.

"The current dioxin scandal has suddenly highlighted the backlog of reforms in agricultural policy," Hubert Weiger, chairman of BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) said in his speech at the rally.

In the largest demonstration of its kind, organizers said 22,000 people came from all over Germany on 60 buses, trains and 50 tractors. Police estimated the turnout to be 15,000 participants. The demonstration was timed to coincide with International Green Week, an annual agricultural exhibition in Berlin.

The protest ran under the motto "We've had enough - no to genetic engineering, factory farming and export dumping." Dumping is the practice of exporting goods at a price which is either below the price it charges in its home market or is below its production costs.

Read more: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14780207,00.html

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Germans don't believe dioxin is a valid food group.

Germany's version of EPA is the same as here, it supports business interests over public's interest.

[DeSwiss]

1. K&R

TPTB won't like this turn of events.

- Not at all.....

[marasinghe]

2. yes. no one should be rocking the boat. Natural stuff reserved for TPTB.

dioxin, plastic & GMO's have been earmarked for us, serfs. well, those of us not in the mass die-offs -- who will evolve at some point of time, to have the ability to absorb nutrition from them, like arsenic-fueled bacteria. else, who's gonna tend the gardens, do the laundry & clean out the trash of the elite? can't have them soiling their gloved-hands on dioxin tainted earth.

[molly77]

4. Germany is a world leader on health and health care.

Even Hitler encouraged organic.

[indimuse]

3. KNR! n/t

[DCBob]

5. If we end "factory farming" then millions would starve...

unless office workers are willing to become farmers.

[marmar]

6. Eventually, they might have to.

[Robbien]

7. Factory farming just started taking off in Germany in the last two years or so

So it is much easier there to reverse the process. Many small farmers (about 5,000) are still there not yet driven out by factory farms.

[DCBob]

8. I think it's more a global thing..

I suspect the reason factory farming began to take off recently in Germany was due to competition from products produced on factory farms outside its borders.

[Robbien]

11. Outside investors bought up German farmland pushing local farmers out

People were willing to buy local German farmers food at reasonable prices but recently outside investors changed the game.

[DCBob]

14. Ok. Thanks for the info.

[Robbien]

23. Farmland was owned by the state of Germany with small farmers leasing land

Most farmland was in the same family leasehold for generations and generations.

But recently Germany is privatizing the land, selling it to the cash rich global banksters/hedgefunders who are turning the farmland into factory farms.

If this can be stopped, now is the time to stop it while there are family farmers still around willing and desperately wanting to go back to their family business.

[DCKit]

28. Or, possibly, the idea that people expect toxin-free food.

Who knows?

You've been all over this OP, are you sure you're posting on the correct board?

[DCBob]

30. Which board should I be posting on?

Please advise.

[dotymed]

9. If "we" had not, in the last 50 years,

subsidized "Factory farms" which caused the near extinction of family farms, then this problem would not exist. The "need" for "office workers" to "become farmers" would definitely not be a valid argument, if it currently is.
World laws have been enacted to force GMO's on everyone. Everything for profit for the few Monsanto's of the world. Capitalism is killing us, this includes our more evolved European brothers/sisters.

[DCBob]

16. A big part of this is that few people want to be farmers.. its a hard nasty dirty low-paying job..

Even the children of farmers want to get out. So the result is that there are fewer and fewer people left to do the work.. thus the factory farm where one man can produce the same amount as 20.

[dotymed]

20. I don't know where your from

but most of the surviving family farmers I know, love it. They earn good money too, especially after the subsidies and the money they get for not growing certain crops. They have great farm implements that make most of the "hard,nasty", neither.
I lived on a cattle farm, crops too, until 2 years ago. My landlord, a teabagger, made a very comfortable living. He was a hard worker and despite his politics, a person that I respect.

[DCBob]

22. I grew up on a farm in the midwest.. few of those my age ended up staying on the farm..

Some did because they loved it... but most didnt. Family farmer types do not make good money despite the subsidies. Many have second jobs just to survive. The job is hard despite the "great" machinery. I have done it... riding a tractor for 10 hours in the sun and dirt and heat and noise and smell.. its not fun.. trust me.

[social_critic]

27. DC Bob, the price of food is so high, it's worth your while to farm

Food prices are going up, this means farmers can farm and earn a pretty decent living. So now there's more of a choice. People who sell wheat and tomatoes get a better price, and people who sell legal services and DVD players can either pay more for their food, or go back to the farm themselves. I think those protesters should consider going into organic farming, and see if they can make a living that way.

The Germans have a pretty neat system, when we consider the pluses and minuses. Those who don't like it get to protest, if they want to do something they can try it out, and see if they can make a living doing it. And if it doesn't work, they can always spend their time protesting again.

[NickB79]

32. Same here. Son of a farmer, and it was hard, thankless work

Sure, we had good years every now and then, but just as often we had horrible years where we were on the verge of losing the farm. You work 14 hr a day, every day, and sweat for a good portion of it. Our tractors were old and kept running by scavenging parts from other tractors purchased at auctions. My mom worked a job outside the home as a nursing aid at the local retirement home to help support us. I was able to go to college only by the fact that I got scholarships and grants because, when we factoring in all our expenses to keep the farm running, we were operating below the poverty level! The news today about how farmers are making big bucks is fairly recent. Only in the past decade have farmers started to make big money, mainly because of rising commodity prices as developing nations like India and China start demanding more food, ethanol production started to rise, and climate change started wiping out crops in other nations.

That said, I loved farming. I honestly thought about becoming a farmer myself, but ultimately couldn't see myself slowly crippling myself like my father, with arthritis by age 40 causing constant pain every day.

There's a good reason why the average small/family farmer in this country is 55 years.

[snappyturtle]

19. I am on a family farm. It's over 100 years old. It originally was 2000 acres.

In the early 1900's it was broken up into smaller portions by my great grandfather to his descendants and that practice continues. I am not looking forward to the next few years as my brother, sister and I will inherit my mother's farm (Mom is 94 and my reason for being here). Where will the next generation of farmers come from, I don't know. Farming has been a good life,over-all, for the farmers in my family but it's not the occupation of siblings or myself. My generation is too old to gain the experience to farm and too old to do the actual labor. I've been back here for five months, so obviously through the harvest, and didn't see any young farmers on the combines or corn pickers! On the other hand, I do not find anything good in factory farming other than it produces abundantly but with that comes all the health dangers. Our land produces double what my grandfather yielded but at what cost? I'll learn what I can but I dread the future for this fertile soil.

ALL subsidizing has killed farming both corporate AND family owned (aside: my cousins, the two or three farming our land and other's, would probably shoot me if I said this to them). The 'risks' were subsidized and the race was on for greater production and voila, genetically modified crops rose to the top. If we go back to my grandfather's generation, who will take the risk that farming can be, without subsidies, especially with climate change? Production will drop and the prices for crops will skyrocket. What a dilemma. imho

[eilen]

33. Joel Salatin is doing pretty good on Polyface Farm.

http://www.polyfacefarms.com/

The Polyface Story

Salatin FamilyIN 1961, William and Lucille Salatin moved their young family to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, purchasing the most worn-out, eroded, abused farm in the area near Staunton. Using nature as a pattern, they and their children began the healing and innovation that now supports three generations.



Disregarding conventional wisdom, the Salatins planted trees, built huge compost piles, dug ponds, moved cows daily with portable electric fencing, and invented portable sheltering systems to produce all their animals on perennial prairie polycultures.



Today the farm arguably represents America’s premier non-industrial food production oasis. Believing that the Creator’s design is still the best pattern for the biological world, the Salatin family invites like-minded folks to join in the farm’s mission: to develop emotionally, economically, environmentally enhancing agricultural enterprises and facilitate their duplication throughout the world.



The Salatins continue to refine their models to push environmentally-friendly farming practices toward new levels of expertise.

[NCarolinawoman]

34. Thank you for your perspective. n/t

[trud]

10. millions can grow at least some of their food. n/t

[SpiralHawk]

15. Labor in a Cube Farm Vs. Labor on a Natural Farm

Hmmmm? -- are you suggesting that life in the Cube Farm is somehow superior or more desireable than life on a clean, natural, organic healthy farm field?

For some folks, sure, for all? No way...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Potx4fnuRaU/SMWAHRu96UI/AAAAAAAAFkY/D6Pv5MUvYZg/s400/cube+farm.jpg

[DCBob]

17. Sure, go ahead and ask those cube rats to turn in their computers for hoes..

and move to some farm in Bumfuck Kansas and see how many takers you get.

[SpiralHawk]

26. Some will, some won't - you are basing your assumptions on assumptions

Pretty damn jelloish ground.

If there were real opportunities and one could pose the question seriously to the universe of Cube Farmers, there would be many takers. Not everyone is cut out for meek acquiesce to Cube Farm Serfdom - or to Industrial Farm Slavery. Some folks like nature and freedom, and some have the will and the skill to make it happen.

[roody]

25. There are many people unemployed.

[SpiralHawk]

12. k and r

k and r

[robcon]

13. What do we do with 6 billion humans?

Regulated genetic engineering is the best hope for feeding the world.

[spooked911]

18. All I would like is to get GMO foods labeled here in the US

It's ridiculous we can't know what's in our food. But neither do I see Americans marching over that.

[harvey007]

21. Factory Farming = Toxic Food

Those who take the time to study this issue agree that factory farming is an evil that must end.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfm

http://www.themeatrix.com/

http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/death-on-a-factory-farm/index.html

http://www.cornucopia.org/

http://www.cafothebook.org/thebook.htm

[Enthusiast]

24. These farming practices only serve to

generate greater profits. It does not serve either the consumer or the animals well.

[freshwest]

29. Great news.

:toast:

[defendandprotect]

31. And when might Americans wake up?

[sofa king]

35. I think I see some irony, there.

Henry Morgenthau and the Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to remove Germany's capacity to wage war by converting it back to an agrarian and pastoral nation and dispersing economic and political power among individual farm-owners.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JCS_1067

I don't think that particularly means anything. It's just interesting to me to see some modern Germans asking for something similar.