Transcripts For DW Close Up 20240714

Interest groups. As only shows calling me a lobbyist is a mean spirited allegation that look. You know is now negotiating a new multiyear budget will it include farm policies that do more to protect the environment. Of. Farm fields as far as the eye can see this land all 2600 hectares of it belongs to one of germanys largest farming businesses agro bird. Weve come here to talk to the companies managing director or bun huge. Its a successful enterprise optimized for efficiency and production but units doesnt seem to be truly happy in his work. So this one with a lot of its not farming in the traditional sense we use the latest technology and our productivity is extremely high but theres always pressure to do more. Better govern produces 10000. 00 tons of potatoes a year for a company in payment that makes french fries they grow only 1. 00 kind of potato here and they have to be as large as possible. Like most farms burdock only uses fertilizers and pesticides to keep meal time they also receive 700000. 00 euros a year in e. U. Subsidies that helps to keep them competitive in world markets. But i didnt from that 65 percent of our potatoes end up as finished Food Products but were also competing with frozen french fries from the u. S. It really is a Global Markets in global market. The e. U. Actually promotes the development of these agro giants because the amount of the subsidy is determined by the size of the Farm Environmental concerns are often ignored. Thats not the case with this small family owned farm located near munich they follow the principles put forward by the by a Land Organization which promotes organic agriculture practices the farm grows 20 different kinds of potatoes and they dont use artificial fertilisers or chemical pesticides. Yup its a beautiful i learned traditional farming methods and when ive driven my spraying vehicle through the fields for the 10th time i know that ive made the right choice. Since you began to talk of you have missed this but its a good thing was image because its you know i wanted to avoid using chemical pesticides and thats what got me excited about this kind of farming. Country as time. Gets a 55000 euro annual subsidy from the e. U. And another 50000 from the state of bavaria because he uses organic farming methods. Still invests the funds in his farm polls indicate that most germans approve of this kind of agriculture because it helps to preserve the landscape soil and climate. There are only 2 viable Business Models in e. U. Funded agriculture huge conventional farms like berta corn and organic farms my cuts and. The Common Agricultural policy dates back to 1957 its original goals included increasing productivity and providing a stable income for farmers today the e. U. Provides massive subsidies to help Agricultural Products compete effectively in world markets. About 38 percent of the e. U. s entire budget 58000000000. 00 euros per year is spent on Financial Support for farmers. 6300000000. 00 euros of that total goes to germany. Most of that money 5000000000 euros goes directly to farmers based on how much land they own. 1300000000. 00 is spent on Financial Support for rural areas only a small amount goes to promote the development of environmentally friendly farming methods. The e. U. s Agricultural Policy rewards big farms like burdick owned which is run by or by unit most farms dont turn a profit today one half of europes total farm land is owned by just under 3 percent of all farm businesses. The e. U. s top priority is to provide maximum crop yields so that farmers can compete with cheaper produce on the world market theres not much money left to promote organic farming. The e. U. s Agricultural Policy has led to the creation of large tracts of farmland that often lie empty. The use of chemical herbicides like life is saved has turned fields into reddish brown deserts. The e. U. s Common Agricultural policy may be responsible for killing off large numbers of birds and useful insects. Weve come to North Western germany to meet some environmentalists who are waiting for lap wings to return from their winter migration the birds come here to breed since the 1990 s. The left wing population has declined by nearly 90 percent in this area the environmentalists are concerned about that. It still has to us its clear to me that the fate of the human race is more closely connected to the fate of the last points than wed like it to be just by its aboard the website. Or ecosystems are becoming more and more unstable he was of the reduction in the left wing population is an obvious symptom of the problem of any of it and honesty of it. Like to breed in fields but about 3 quarters of their nests are destroyed every year by intensive farming methods the environmentalists mark the birds nests so that they wont be run over by tractors or other machines but the real problem is that there arent enough insects and larva anymore for the birds to feed on. Friendly cup byron is the e. U. Doesnt make fundamental changes in its common farming policy we lose more and more insects on the left wings will disappear. And then the farmers will be hit with Court Rulings more a delicious and other punitive measures its. A tie in with full bore that will make their lives even more difficult than 50 lanfear chuffed and in the end well have a catastrophe on the hearns vote for farmers and for the environment for the dont touch oft. Intensive agriculture also contributes to Climate Change for example by converting large areas of forest to farmland germanys federal Environment Agency says the e. U. Should do more to promote green agricultural methods. Up to fix. The currently used policies are not sufficiently promote environmentally friendly practices but we believe that farmers who adopt green methods should get a larger subsidy and big farms that dont get less mostly get to the mice and fishing for veterans. That would be a major turnaround for the e. U. But recent polls indicate that more and more europeans are becoming concerned about protecting the environment it would seem that the German Farmers association would also be interested in promoting green agricultural policies 90 percent of all German Farmers belong to the organization. In june 28th hundreds of farmers and policy experts gathered in vs budden for their annual convention one important discussion topic was the future of e. U. Subsidies. But there was hardly any mention of environmentally friendly agricultural practices. The focus was on preserving the subsidies as they are now. Federal agriculture minister. Declined our request for an interview but in a speech she defended the farming industry against its critics. Their clout does buy if no one believes that agriculture is exclusively responsible for damaging the climate and the environment the land itself should and alans i thats his stock i want to make it clear that a number of different sects contribute to this problem. Of those who claim farming are intellectually lazy and are not doing their part to help us move forward and. I the agriculture minister is supposed to represent the interests of all the people but she seems to be particularly close to the agricultural establishment. Camp of im fighting feel i know how you feel and i know you. Know speech went over well she didnt want to rock the boat at a conference like this but why is the farming industry dead set against the proposed restructuring of the e. U. Subsidy system. This is. And was sponsored by a number of corporations thats the 1st clue. What do these companies have to do with German Agriculture a new study by the institute for labor and the economy at the university of payment has come up with some answers. Researchers found a number of connections between the German Farmers Association Politicians the agriculture industry the Food Production sector Financial Companies and the chemical industry. So since there is a big players here b. S. F. By a crop science and saying get into the Institute Experts have documented a total of 560. 00 connections skip give them and they all talk to each other all. The study names 75. 00 Companies Associations and Political Parties theres one group at the center is of the German Farmers association. The study indicates that Top Association officials represent a range of interests besides farming in the mall for example Association President Joachim Rick Reed is linked to 18 different companies. This graphic shows all of your wacky feeds connections. For example he says on the Advisory Boards of the or in v. N. Surance company. Can renton bank germanys Development Agency for agribusiness grewal areas of interest and tones of identify game. Hes also on the Supervisory Board of. A corporation that sells various products to farmers like fertilizers and pesticides on the. Feed where is the number of different you not really sure whose interest is actually representing. His interests of the fact that. Several other top officials of the Farmers Association have ties to big corporations the companies that these people represent make good money selling products and services to farmers the associations general secretary ban talk chris can sees no conflict of interest here. Its important to note that all of the companies you just mentioned are owned by farmers. And if they didnt have these kinds of business connections theyd be in real trouble. For all of the ones on a. B. C. Its a traditional cooperative effort even if some of these organisations have now become corporations. With another form a few yet. But most of these corporations generate billions in sales and have other business interests besides those of farmers. The Farmers Association executives benefit substantially from their ties to corporations that sell farmers the products and services they need and the farmers pay for all that with the money they get from e. U. Subsidies so the association has a vested interest in keeping the subsidy system just the way it is. Over several decades the Farmers Association has built up a sophisticated lobbying network that allows them to influence the political Decision Making process and its Public Opinion as well in my experience process and it has actually been for some game. It seems as though the association will not be supporting subsidy reform any time soon can the e. U. Do anything to help weve come to the European Parliament in brussels to attend a session of the Agriculture Committee the members are due to vote on a proposal to cut some of the farm subsidies. Perhaps some of the money would be better spent to promote farming methods that help to protect the environment a majority of the Committee Members belong to the conservative Peoples Party group. Germanys alabama desk has been the Party Spokesman on the committee for 10 years is not only a powerful politician hes also chairman of the board of one of the various Largest Dairy cooperatives buy on mt we asked him whether hes using his political influence to keep down the prices that the coop pays to farmers. As only shows will boost calling me a lobbyist as a mean spirited allegation for can we can my constituents have known me since i was a young man and with that i had the best Election Results in all of bavaria in 2004 when i 1st ran for the European Parliament when there were more than 30 parties on the ballot i won with just over 70 percent of the vote of the people of my district know me and they would reject such allegations or that sort of question. Tess has also been active in the Farmers Association for more than 40 years and hes a member of the Parliament Committee that certifies the use of pesticides plus he serves on the buy Advisory Board by vos sells products and services to farmers including pesticides dest doesnt seem too concerned about the deadly effects that these chemicals have on useful insects. Farming methods in my part of the country havent changed in 40 years ago so why blame farmers now for the decline in insect populations lots of pesticides arent responsible thats what linda moved for 40 years ago 70 percent of the pesticides that we used were highly toxic we dont use those anymore but back then they didnt bother the useful insects so this discussion is hypocritical to me for global but numerous studies indicate that the use of highly effective pesticides is indeed responsible for much of the decline in insect populations. A few minutes later descent his Party Colleagues voted against the proposal to reduce the subsidies so the payments will continue for the time being. And there will be no reforms of the e use Common Agricultural policy before the next European Parliament elections. If. Id rather have this position on the committee than serve as a National Agriculture minister because i have more influence here than a minister does that you will if youre not in full swap it was real not so and by saying that im not being disrespectful of the ministers only because it is obvious they have a difficult and complicated job to do with your body but here i can talk to colleagues from all over europe and from all over the world. I can meet with agriculture ministers from britain the us brazil new Zealand Australia and african countries. When we will double mostly on. Those countries and others will continue to buy subsidized european Farm Products maria National Also serves on the Agriculture Committee and has called for radical policy reforms. Busy to distance the theres no law that says we have to focus on International Markets and im not opposed to trade or exports but our 1st priority should be europe yes we should take a regional approach. Its absurd for us to export milk to australia and then have australia export milk to us on this that milk is being dumped on the world market by this australian and german Dairy Farmers arent making any money and people wonder why we should not export basic Food Products like milk. To farm. System which is supported by billions of euros and subsidies appears to be broken and those subsidies are financed by european taxpayers can consumers do anything to help fix this situation. Perhaps they could make different choices when it comes to buying food. Hudson is the c. E. O. Of slow food germany an organization that promotes Sustainable Agriculture and the use of local products shes brought along some store bought food today and explains why consumers should be concerned about it. This is made to see as if this flour is very inexpensive. Because but it also has lots of heating costs that well have to pay because this is the cindy cost for example the week comes from soil thats being ruined because of the over use of fertilizers and pesticides. So the prices we pay at the supermarket may seem cheap but they really know it comes with american discount. Products are also inexpensive in part because pig feed is cheap the main reason for that is that its made from products that are grown on farms that are heavily subsidized by the e. U. Is get. This meaty comes from cakes that have been raised on fat and then farms so that they quickly end up weighing 122150. 1 to be full of food to kill all the phones used concentrated feed and they completely ignore the basic rules of raising livestock. Hudson says that many consumers dont know where their food comes from so they end up supporting an agricultural system that is focused on profit and damages the environment. And claim is alone cant change the situation because the farm policy agenda is set by the politicians as im the 70 i live in occur. So weve come to berlin to talk to some politicians after all any reforms to the e. U. s farm subsidies have to be approved by the governments of the 28 Member States the bundestag. Has its own food and Agriculture Committee. M. P. Run not a coup lost a member of the green party serves on the committee she was also the federal agriculture minister from 2001 to 2005. You might think its an odd the committee has been discussing the important issues that the agriculture industry faces some members press the fact that they are farmers but these people dont act like m. P. s because they make decisions based on business interests like these on a go on. And indeed a majority of the Agriculture Committee members own farms and are members of the Farmers Association these m. P. s have the political clout to block any efforts at reform. Says that Committee Members should not put personal business interests ahead of the Public Interest she wants the e. U. To develop a new system for allocating farm subsidies. I this just as i can put some of this public money should be used to finance public services. I believe that a large part of the subsidies at least 15000000000 euros should be invested in a Nature Conservation fund that farmers could use that would definitely be in the publics best interest because it would help stop the damage to biodiversity and the environment we should be funding organic farming not the over exploitation of nature oh well not to us. But only a few of the Agriculture Committee members agree with q nost most of them want to keep the e. U. Subsidy system just the way it is the situation in the German Parliament is almost identical to the one in brussels. The politicians seem more interested in preserving the status quo instead of protecting the environment the Farmers Association is also opposed to subsidy reforms. Weve returned to the institute for labor and the economy to learn more about the associations lobbying network. Do you see is that souls lost what were trying to find out why serious agricultural reform proposals have been consistently blocked in both the german or and European Parliaments and you know we wanted to get to the bottom of the situation. The body or the political interests that work here and what role if any the loveliest play will be as small as. The researchers came across a little known Organization Called the forum for modern agriculture. Before m ms to inform the general public about the benefits of agriculture on its website there are no reports about environmental problems factory farms or the extinction of animal species. But we did find an article that justifies the use of. A controversial herbicide. The Farmers Association helped to set up the forum. But this form of that has nothing to do with politics or tickets to it simply brings various farming groups under one roof and tries to inform the public about what these groups are doing which will do its use to inform me of. The forum Supervisory Board includes executives from Agro Chemical Companies Like buyer crop science. And the association of farm Credit Unions a lot of pretty important people are associated with this informational for a. Big and often alls well that we believe that its an attempt to identify the industrys key policies and then coordinate them with the politician us critic so argue an obstacle. The chairman of the forums board of directors as you walk him route feet the president of the Farmers Association. Members of the Advisory Board include the head of the federal agency that advises the government on potential Health Hazards including pesticides. These misguided policies taken to. Gether have created a huge agricultural waste land in germany. But there are still some small farms scattered around the country that you sustainable methods for growing crops as part of the effort to protect the environment biodiversity and wildlife. The broader vien eco complex is located about 50 kilometers northeast of berlin and it covers 1400. 00 acres which makes it the largest organic farm in germany the farm aims to restore maintain and enhance ecological harmony the animal feed is 100 percent organic and half of it is grown right on the farm the idea is to maintain a selfcontained and selfsustaining enterprise that is compatible with the local environment. Yvonne was often fed on we grow across harvest them. And those cups contain new trends that are found in the soil. We also sell some of the grain to bakeries. But we use a lot of it to feed the animals. Have thats not her zones and we take them in your compile stead. And then put it on the fields a fed size and sweep of the fed oh. They dont use liquid fertiliser here unlike most conventional farms. The broad having complex also receive subsidies from the e. U. But not enough to make up for the lower crop yields that are common among organic farms. To increase profitability they market their products directly and charge higher prices. Still Broader Vision has shown that organic farming can work on a large scale. I dont blame any farmer for the situation that were in now they were doing exactly what was expected of them and they cut costs and increased efficiency and for charged or not. But here weve learned that there are alternative methods and its incredibly exciting for me to be part of a project that does more than just simply grow crops. Its supported. E. U. Farm subsidies that encourage Environmental Protection would be a sound investment because they would benefit both farmers and consumers. Have a. Big old india enough of all this in verismo mensuration is still a taboo subject in india and Feminine Hygiene Products are hard to find one for wants to change this by many freshman senator. And so when the door to door. He explained to them that shes seen the sort of cloth. 30 minutes of. The most of this land as we know it now all the issues sparkle as far as the eye can see. But the Climate Crisis is swiftly melting away. With dressed in consequence. Theres not much time left until the alpine twilight of europe without glaciers. In 75 minutes on a d. W. I. The use of slander. You. Russias jailed Opposition Leader alexina vali says he might have been poisoned in his prison cell he made the comments after being released from a hospital where he was treated for symptoms of an acute allergy an avanti was arrested before an unauthorized rally in moscow on saturday where more than 1400 people were detained. For an attack on a market in yemens northern sort of province has killed at least 10 people according to medics the man it