Environmental damage caused by the farming industry has been on the rise in recent years. Animals are often mistreated. In germany a growing number of people want to see changes to Agricultural Policy but little has shifted put this speed because of lobbyists in the Agricultural Sector are lobbyists more powerful in this policy area than in others. Our Research Revealed a tightly intertwined web of interests in which corporations influential figures manning several lobbying positions and politicians are closely linked a lot is at stake. During the making of this film billions of euros in agricultural subsidies were being negotiated in brussels and germany was under a huge pressure to finally impose stricter limits on the amount of liquid manure used on its fields. Who is pulling. Strings behind the scenes. At. Brussels farmers and conservation groups from across europe are protesting outside the headquarters of the European Commission to call for a change in Agricultural Policy they collected 800000 signatures for a petition demanding subsidies for farmers who produce food in an environmentally friendly fashion the demonstration was organized to coincide with an e. U. Negotiation on farming subsidies totaling 55000000000 euros a year. Montana voice leading is a member of the European Parliament and an organic farmer the Green Party Politician has been campaigning for years for environmentally friendly farming to be awarded with subsidies. Down the soft on the inside but on the other side there are powerful lobby interests its not as if money isnt being made from farming in europe group thats a profitable business in the Food Industry is one of the main export earners so naturally there is here to ensure that the pumps a lot of money on to the Agricultural Sector one overs in new york and i got. Martine hustling says taxpayers money is currently being used to interrupt the support of corporations but that it should Serve Society as a whole. The European Parliament has been negotiating the redistribution of farming subsidies for months a total of 55000000000. 00 euros per year the largest slice of the e use expenditure powerful lobby groups are clamoring to maximize their share. But whose interests will prevail. In the European ParliamentMartin Harlan is part of a team negotiating farming issues for the green party and hes preparing for him to bake scheduled for the next day were going to rip his kite runner Senior Advisor on agriculture and Rule Development joints what hes saying to go over the strategy. With. Him and i think we should try to push the point that the current agricultural challenges are going to get worse if things dont change the soil in fertility will drop further. After working with that yeah sure but thats why we have to emphasize that even more there are plenty of figures and supporting documents and the commission described the situation correctly thats appraisal so the question is why arent we taking action yet ready. That should be enough for the 2 minutes this is just because its what we do here. 2 minutes is what martino weaselling will have to present his most important arguments to other members of the European Parliament and i do have a degree of anger in me its just ridiculous that they still havent understood it. We have so much evidence that this form of farming will be our ruin your country but there are still people sitting there saying now everythings ok if we can explain it in a different way theyll understand it and indeed us all. Its the evening before the 1st round of talks which sides interests will come out on top in the debate and why. The next morning german conservative m. E. P. Albert dess is likewise preparing for the debate. Dess is also chairman of buy or not and one of the biggest producers of Dairy Products in germany he takes a skeptical view of investments in environmental protection. To discuss your mindless i find arguments calling for the farming sector to become more environmentally misled even when the its ok if we said that from now on 20 percent of the land should be used environmentally before you get that would result in production being relocated to farming areas around the world for the. Death says that if more german land is used in a way that benefits the environment major producers will inevitably go elsewhere he wants the status quo maintained under which funding is awarded on a per hectare basis desk has offices around the corner from that of social democrat maria noise she takes exception to taxpayers money being allocated according to land area finney said if the big question is which pharmacy receive support then the answer for me is the public funding should be for said this is in the Public Interest you should get money is not simply for owning land but depending on what you do with it its activities that ought to be rewarded not ownership it is since. There are 2 clear camps here policies that favor the environment and the common good or those that mean the more land you own the more money you. Paid and. The different parties made their way over to the Agriculture Committee. Will also be there and will face powerful opponents. Of the olsens 3 and if the Food Industry and its representatives here in parliament so powerful i believe things would be moving in a different direction neal but the Food Industry depends on direct payment subsidies to be able to compete in export markets of thought mark to come. Martin hoisting wants to see an eco friendly Agricultural Policy as do environmental and Consumer Protection groups the e. U. s farming policy is hammered out here by the Agricultural Committee which side will end up getting its way albert desk is the c. E. O. Of a major Dairy Producer. Is an organic farmer. And maria noise is a former teacher. But if im not talking to him phil kogan is the European Commissioner for agriculture and Rural Development and an advocate of area based subsidies. Ensuring to ensure full standard of living for the community in particular where increasing the area is a persons inclusionary. One time for martine whistling to have his say. So hows things you know. Shud post up to a week proposal from the commission looks like things will get even worse except for those few fancy headlines that. Will poisoning managed to convince his colleagues will be returning to the debate in brussels later. To to. Cologne back at our editorial offices we want to investigate who is pulling the strings behind closed doors our industry lobby groups determining Agricultural Policy and if so how. We come across a revealing document from 2015 by the Scientific Advisory board of the German Ministry of agriculture the paper concluded that policy was strongly influenced by Interest Groups because of the powerful and effective farming and agribusiness lobby. How does this impact farmers and what has changed in the past 4 years. We head out to do some research on the ground one environmental issue is ground Water Pollution its been known for years that the excessive use of liquid manure in fields leads to nitrate groundwater contamination in june 2800 germany was condemned for exceeding e. U. Fertiliser limits and currently faces fines of up to 850000. 00 euros per day until it reduces its use of liquid manure. More in north rhinewestphalia where a lot of liquid manure is produced how are the farmers dealing with the problem. This farm belongs to martin ram shoulda who also rears pigs he has had this farm for 40 years and as we arrive hes preparing a delivery of pigs for slaughter. Currently each pig yields 20 euros in profit in some years this drops to just 6 euros. One case that ive hunted for thought you come out short and about this is Pretty Simple because right now its 20 euros per patient 0 if i sell 1000. 00 pigs a year all i earn is 20000 euros how do you try and thats our Family Income every month if you dont get far on that from me and im come come in a 500. 00. 20000. 00 euros for one year of hard work from children may be a part of a villian euro industry but his own profit margin is slim. And for now if we currently have 850. 00 picks from us if we wanted to live soley off that pigs wed have to have 4000. 00 who tells him that its insane it would mean even more liquid manure that needs distributed. The farmer says he already has too much manure he has fields full of crops but they arent enough to dispose of all the animal waste his manure tank as he shows us is full to the brim. Yom to the already have far too much liquid manure for our fields we have to have 300 cubic meters picked up and taken away because we have too many pigs to fish one of. The excess manure ends up several 100 kilometers away on other farmers fields liquid manure is a valuable fertilizer but there are simply too much of it what kind of system is this repeat is now with practically nothing small scale farmers live at subsistence level and the huge quantities of liquid manure are increasingly polluting germanys Drinking Water. Each pig that rumsfelds a drives off to the slaughterhouse has a socalled smaller weight of a around 100. 00 kilos the average price of pork in german supermarkets is 6. 00 euros 70 per kilo. Every year some 65000000. 00 pigs are slaughtered in the country its a 1000000000 euro market that is a huge earner for industry. Chemical Companies Make money from medication and pesticides the Farm Supplies sector from fodder mixtures and fertilizers the agro financial industry from loans for Agricultural Machinery and large scale animal sheds the Meat Industry from slaughtering and processing and finally the Retail Sector from the sale of food products. And production continues to rise germany is now the worlds fervid biggest exporter of food. In order to survive marching rumsfeld to says hed have to expand which would 1st mean going into debt there is a Farmers Union but he doesnt sense much support from them. On for bond thank you bob they have no interest in the Small Farmers only in the quantities of feet they can sell and then keeping the speed pellet plants running a foot of the record most of the lot of people representing the union also sit on the boards of b. Companies including the collectors the lot and insurance for a truck 2 of them or and for the who i cant make sense of it im a going to we have managers in the union who are at the same time working for Major Companies also fumes its an orange info ban. In response to work weary the german Farmers Union insisted it also represents the interest of small scale farmers. The Agricultural Industry continues to increase turnover but at what price to the public our next stop is lower saxony where we meet a gun harms from the olden board waterboard for years hes found the nitrate levels in water just below ground to be worryingly high and 520. 00. Were very concerned that the pollution were currently only seeing below the surface well at some point seeps deeper than to the level we get our water from him. Based on his measurements hydrologist is able to calculate how the ground Water Quality will deteriorate in the future. What does he make of the governments approach. That im stocked up for. Instead of recognizing the problem early on and working with us on solutions after they said there was no nitrate problem i mean a few of them still claim that one off thats the knowledge that the e. U. Is threatening to impose fines time is running short on action has to be taken to. We accompany him to the land where he will inspect his latest sample too much nitrate in Drinking Water is carcinogenic with Young Children particularly at risk expensive filter systems might soon become necessary but that would almost double the price of water in some regions according to the energy and Water ManagementIndustry Association todays results are hardly encouraging. 119. 00 just under 120. 00 milligrams per liter thats more than twice the permitted limit of his colleagues elsewhere in germany are also finding critical levels water board officials are urgently calling for measures to be taken. Come from here when it comes to fighting for more stringent regulations for manure we continually find ourselves up against the agribusiness lobby. And theyve been managing to prevent stricter regulations for years. So for. Tightening germanys fertiliser legislation to keep the countrys Drinking Water safe its a debate with a lot at stake because less liquid manure would also mean. Fewer pigs which would in turn have consequences for the entire industry for years the German Government has failed to agree on a solution. Makes you wonder who is in bed with whom theres a lot of money involved who actually and fluence is Foreign Policy thats the question for. Our Parliament Members subjected to so much lobbying influence that you have to ask whether theyre still acting with the publics interest in mind. Because. We began researching whose interests politicians in key positions are really representing and begin examining how fertiliser legislation was decided in the past. Germanys government has known for years that it has to act not least due to pressure from the e. U. Over excessive nitrate levels in the groundwater time and time again however amendments have been postponed in 2016 the German Parliaments Agriculture Committee began examining how much liquid manure should be allowed on crops attending the meeting was one of the most renowned scientists in his field he calculated how much nitrogen from liquid manure or artificial fertiliser crops need to grow. Thats literally warm welcome to you all i would like to introduce our expert speaker and professor. From the christiane university in the rose to take to killing. Together with 30 other scientists Friedhelm Talbot calculated how much nitrogen plants such as maize need to grow. The researchers found this to be 150 kilograms per hectare and professor talbot recommended this figure at the hearing. But just before the negotiation ended the committee decided to recommend 200 kilograms of nitrogen perhaps theyre significantly more fertiliser than the plants can actually absorb according to the. Experts the surplus seeps into the groundwater in the form of nitrates. The scientists were asked for their Expert Opinion at the Agriculture Committee hearings but their findings were not adopted this. X. The problem is its extremely problematic for a scientist to see how legislation is being based on deals here you want to find on levels of fact that are far removed from scientific knowledge up fun because after you know how is it. Were meeting professor talbot 2 years after the hearing he tells us the 27000 amendment regarding the nitrogen level has had enormous consequences. Doesnt do it no consequence farmers can now use this additional amount of fertilizer this was not on the agenda beforehand but it was slipped into those negotiations right at the end with these if i dont with high horses and who was behind that. To answer this question we begin by identifying which german Parliament Members worked on the legislation the preparation of such bills takes place behind closed doors here in the Agriculture Committee this is where decisions are made on how animals are kept and how food is produced. Our analyses revealed that almost half the parliamentarians on the committee have direct links to agriculture. A large proportion of them also hold high level positions in the agriculture industry in the Farmers Association or in the agribusiness Financial Sector and that proportion is particularly high in the conservative c. D. U. C. S. U. Parliamentary group. What did these m. P. s say and do in the committee in 2017. Austin from the green party remembers the negotiations vividly didnt seem to move all that the Christian Democrats Christian Social Union people did was stall and. They torpedoed the whole thing with it was an endless process. And we in the opposition got a pretty good picture of events because social democrat colleagues would come over to cry on our