Interest groups. And we feel calling me a lobbyist is a mean spirited allegation that look. You 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 berdych. Weve come here to talk to the companies managing director or bun unit which. Its a successful enterprise optimized for efficiency and production but units doesnt seem to be truly happy in his work. So at this moment 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. Good a good one produces 10000 tons of potatoes a year for a company in payment that makes french fries they grow only one kind of potato here and they have to be as large as possible. Like most farms burdekin uses fertilizers and pesticides to keep time they also receive 700000. 00 euros a year in e. U. Subsidies that helps to keep them competitive in world markets. Relied on from that 65 percent of the potatoes and up as finished Food Products. But were also competing with frozen french fries from the u. S. If it really is a Global Markets that we can 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. We hope this year maybe weve learned traditional farming methods then when ive driven my spraying vehicle through the fields for the 10th time i know that ive made the right choice. Of you admit this but its being with image economies its even i wanted to avoid using chemical pesticides and thats what got me excited about this kind of farming is 1. 100 years hot zone gets a 55000 euro annual subsidy from the e. U. And another 50000 from the state of bavaria because he uses organic farming methods. Hartsell 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 bird a clone and organic farms like huts old. 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 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 world areas only a small amount goes to promote the development of environmentally friendly farming methods. The 8 years Agricultural Policy rewards big farms like burdick owned which is run by or buy in here which 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 used top priority is to provide maximum crop yield 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 or say it 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. Step festus 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 whats important and what psych does to. Our ecosystems are becoming more and more unstable he was on the reduction in the lap when population is an obvious symptom of that problem with any of it you know that. My point is 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 marva anymore for the birds to feed on. Friend to go up by and if that 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 quarterly loss more of delicious and other punitive measures. Because its a tired metaphor board that will make their lives even more difficult fitted on to tufts and in the end well have a catastrophe on the hearns vote for farmers and for the environment for the doctor chuffed. 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 your policies are not sufficiently promote environmentally friendly practices but believe that farmers who adopt green methods should get a larger subsidy and big farms that dont should get less mostly get the most inflation of each of the. 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 2800 hundreds of farmers and policy experts gathered in 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 not have no one believes that agriculture is exclusively responsible for damaging the climate and the environment the land itself should and allans i guess is. That i want to make it clear. That a number of different sects contribute to this problem. Of those who claim famine 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. Kempe 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 event 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 braman 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. Some big players here b. S. F. By across something get into the Institute Experts have documented a total of 560. 00 connections. And they all talk to each other. The study names 75. 00 Companies Associations and Political Parties theres one group at the center is of the German Farmers association and. The study indicates that Top Association officials represent a range of interests besides farming. All of them for example Association President 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 rent them by germanys Development Agency for agribusiness and rural areas into the terms of art its a fair game. Hes also on the Supervisory Board of by a corporation that sells various products to farmers like fertilizers and pesticides on the danforth soft. Feet wears a number of different hats so 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 since 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 the want to name because its a traditional cooperative effort even if some of these organizations have now become corporations sort. Of another form if you knew it. 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 this subsidy system just the way it is. After. Over several decades the Farmers Association has built up a sophisticated lobbying network that allows them to influence the political Decision Making process earnings Public Opinion as well in my experience. And 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 outback dest has been the Party Spokesman on the committee for 10 years has 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 is a mean spirited allegation for you and me for my constituents have known me since i was a young man told me 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. Test 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 bio Advisory Board by the us sells products and services to farmers including pesticides desk doesnt seem too concerned about the deadly effects that these chemicals have on useful insects. Well 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 are responsible for this woman the mother for 40 years ago 70 percent of the past a size 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 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 eat use Common Agricultural policy before the next European Parliament elections. I would 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 swing of 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 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 do almost with. 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. To distrust of it 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 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 a macro discount of. 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. This meaty comes from cakes that have been raised on factoring farms so that they quickly end up weighing 122150. 1 to be food for the sick. The foams use 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 i said in the i would 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 last a member of the green party serves on the committee she was also the federal agriculture minister from 2001 to 2005. If you want to get going and fog 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 and 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. Canasta says that Committee Member 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 am with the 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 not to work. But only a few of the Agriculture Committee members agree with q nast most of them want to keep the e. U. Subsidy system just the way it is done 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 as a source that were trying to find out why serious agricultural reform proposals have been consistently blocked in both the german earned European Parliaments and you know or patient we wanted to get to the bottom of the situation. Or the political interests that work here in food and what role if any the loveliest play will be its most. The researchers came across a little known Organization Called the forum for modern agriculture. Before aims 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 life as a controversial herbicide. The Farmers Association helped set up the forum. But this form of good has nothing to do with politics predicts 2 of those it simply brings various farming groups under one roof and tries to inform the public about what these groups are doing which i didnt see you 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 forum. They gave holes we believe that its an attempt to identify the industrys key policies and then coordinate them with the politician us critics argue notes of. The chairman of the forums board of directors as you walk in rick feed 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 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 most often fed on we grow our crops and 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. Thats not through zones and we take them in your compile stead. And then put it on the fields as fertilizer of the fed up. 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. Are still Broader Vision has shown that organic farming can work on a large scale. Im going to move us because i dont blame any farmer for the situation that were in now just for once over they were doing exactly what was expected of them and similarly viewed that cut costs and the christopher chanson for charged or didnt. You know but here at proto humans weve learned that there are alternative methods and im ok and its incredibly exciting for me to be part of a project that does more than just simply grow crops. Its supported cx. E. U. Farm subsidies that encourage Environmental Protection would be a sound investment because they would benefit both farmers and consumers. Kick off. A are sold. In the us sun. Yes sun yes sun news its a kind of culture walk to me a sun media phenomenon. Or a family on a level. W. Her 1st day at school in the jungle. Her 1st climbing less of a minute as grand the moment arrives. To join your reckoning on her journey back to freedom. In our interactive documentary story in a ranting returns home on t w dot com the tanks. Play. The bass. Player. The but. This is news live from the land exposing the horror of Human Trafficking think when we didnt catch enough fish or squid i think we will be eaten by the captain of the thing people or we will be to know a lot im still traumatized by it going to far far more. From seafarer to slay we will speak with the indonesians and forced to work in appalling conditions on chinese fishing boats and we hear from an expert on what can be done to stop the trade in human beings. Also coming up
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