from Markus Langemann
For months, enlightened minds in our society have been noticing the death of intellect, reason, respect, decency and also prosperity. The idea of unity and justice and freedom, which von Fallersleben invoked against the arbitrary power of princes, is now being royally scuttled by the 700 extremely cognitively challenged representatives of the people in the Reichstag building. Sustainably, it seems to me. Ah yes, we are all paying for it too.
In my dark hours of contemplating the political-ideological complex in Germany, it felt like the horde of 700 against the 83 million. Peacefulness and readiness for defense, the rule of law, innovative strength, finance, healthcare, the energy transition, diplomacy, you name it ... Everything is slipping, the rest is already in disarray.
This Sunday, BlackRock's "Man in Black" (CDU) is even spreading the word about the winter blackout: Friedrich Merz, after all the federal chairman of a former people's party, is worrying and scaring others about the impending dystopia. As a child, I was scared on the ghost train. It was always these transparent, wafting green creepy figures that scared me. Today, the ghost train stretches from Geesthacht to Garmisch, even in daylight. A few days ago, the SPD Minister of Agriculture for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Till Backhaus, made the point that "fat and stupid used to be two people" about the federal chairwoman of the Greens. Despite true words, the shitstorm is legion.
This brings me to the topic that I would like to draw your attention to in this article. The suffering of the farmers who feed us and the death in and from the vegetable field.
Nothing should be more important to us than the food we eat every day. Where does
them? Who produces it? How much does it cost? This question is more existential than the question of when your electric car needs to be plugged in again, because food doesn't grow on Rewe shelves.
In France and Switzerland, statistics are kept on suicide rates among farmers. There are no such studies in Germany. And yet the situation of many farmers in this country is also a drama. Agriculture is dying. And sometimes the farmer within it.
The author and journalist Antje Maly-Samiralow conducted an important interview with a farmer for the Club der klaren Worte. For understandable reasons, her name has been anonymized, which is why we are publishing the interview in text form only. You can read it read here, download and (as PDF) also like to pass on.
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6 Responses
It saddens me that our farmers are treated like this and that precious food has to be plowed under on a regular basis.
But I also find it difficult to think in terms of 100,000 kohlrabi per hectare, with 170 hectares under cultivation. These are mass cultivation systems that can never do justice to the soil and an ecological approach to it.
One year ago, I got back into community-supported agriculture (SoLaWi). A young group has been running a farm for almost 10 years and supplies 3 locations in Berlin with regional, seasonal (uncertified) organic vegetables once a week.
We weigh the vegetables there, every 6 weeks it is the turn of one of the small groups.
I pay €50 a month for half a share of the harvest, no matter what and no matter how much. That's the solidarity aspect.
So far it has always been more than enough.
The minimum price is set in advance by the Court and the members name their highest bid. This is how we come together, without middlemen, without supermarket chains, without warehouses. Fair and healthy.
Feels mega good every week.
And... I actually eat the vegetables from here in winter.
With solidarity greetings
L. Heinrich from Berlin
Coincidence or logarithms? I read the introduction by Markus Langemann, the fascinating interview (compliments to Antje Maly-Samiralow) and watch the video. One of the topics of the interview was the market power of retail giants such as the Schwarz Group, owners of Lidl and Kaufland. To my shame, I didn't even know who exactly was behind the two discounters.
Kurz danach wird mir ein Artikel vorgeschlagen von der WirtschaftsWoche. Titel: „Die sechs Erfolgsgeheimnisse des Lidl-Königs“. In dem Artikel geht es um einen gewissen Dieter Schwarz. Reichster Mann Deutschlands, geschätztes Vermögen 47,2 Milliarden US-Dollar lt. Forbes.
The secrets of the Lidl king's success? I wonder what the Hanna Bauers in Germany, Holland, France etc. feel when they read such a headline. It probably feels like sheer mockery, like a slap in the face.
There are more videos from the world economic forum on this topic https://www.weforum.org/videos/what-is-vertical-farming-and-what-are-the-benefits on the WEF website. You only have to put 1+1 together and it becomes clear why things are like this at the moment. I dread such a future.
Alles im Sinne des „Great Reset“, demnach soll unser Essen ja zukünftig aus indoor Farmen kommen.
Here: https://www.weforum.org/videos/21447-this-huge-indoor-eco-farm-could-be-the-future-of-food-1 there is a video from the WEF showing how they envision the future in this regard.
The food retail sector is dominated by a few who seem to be in basic agreement. Cartel office? Only when the weather is nice. Consumers got in their cars, TDI?, and got the bargains until the local store closed, the TDI was also so expensive that the average driver never recouped the high price due to his few miles. Milkmaid math. Conventional agriculture is reaching its limits due to the current price spikes in synthetic fertilizers, weedkillers and diesel prices. The pollution of groundwater and soil is anything but sustainable. Scientists such as Allan Savory (lit.: "Holistic Management") and many others are developing forms of regenerative agriculture and forestry that have the potential to reverse the increase in CO2 concentration in the earth's atmosphere. Their products are then also food and not just food, as they have a completely different quality. With an appropriate mix of animal and plant foods, a largely complete food supply within the European Union and Germany should also be possible under organic conditions. On the other hand, the pharmaceutical and chemical companies are lobbying hard to sell pesticides, artificial fertilizers and the veterinary medicines and vaccines needed in mass livestock farming. All for our own good, of course.
The interview is very interesting and the situation of vegetable growers - as in agriculture in general - is very regrettable, but it is always advisable to take a complete look at the overall situation in an economic sector, in this case vegetable growing: Vegetable growing, to take a complete look at it and to examine it objectively and soberly.
Just as there are big differences between bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, cars, trucks, trains, cranes, excavators, etc. when it comes to means of transportation, there are also big differences when it comes to food. There are dairy farmers, cheese farmers, vegetable farmers, meat farmers, organic farmers, fruit farmers, wine farmers, schnapps farmers, etc. They are all in constant competition with other producers in their specific sector/product manufacture.
Free competition and freedom of contract are fundamentally right and important, as all competitors must focus on the needs of customers and have a great interest in the highest possible quality and adequate prices for their products, as well as in profitable business, which requires responsible handling of all means of production.
If, in a free market, a product, e.g. the vegetables of the farmer interviewed, were no longer in high demand because the needs of customers have changed, e.g. towards more meat products or other types of vegetables that this farmer does not grow, the farmer would either have to switch to other goods that are more in demand, change and adapt to the market and the needs of customers, or work at a loss and leave the market sooner or later. That would be a natural market process. Just as cars and locomotives once pushed horses and horse-drawn carriages out of the market because customers' needs had changed, the same would be true of a natural market process, in this case the vegetable farmer.
The question is therefore whether or not a natural market process is taking place.
This question was answered by the vegetable farmer herself and is also known to everyone. It is by no means a purely natural market process. It may be that the demand for vegetables or these particular types of vegetables is declining, but other, far more serious factors are playing a key role here, namely state intervention.
Taxes, duties, wage requirements for employees, cultivation requirements, rules, regulations, provisions, etc. etc. The list is endless. I do not know to what extent the vegetable farmer receives subsidies from the state, as this is not mentioned.
However, due to global trade, which increases the prosperity of all people, unnatural, unfair competition exists worldwide, as the world is divided into states. Each state not only imposes different taxes and levies, other laws and prohibitions, rules, regulations, provisions, etc., which gives entrepreneurs who live in states with less aggressive players an advantage over all other entrepreneurs in states where the entrepreneurs are on a tight and short (state) chain and are clogged up with countless laws and prohibitions, rules, regulations, provisions, etc.. Here, additional different gagging of entrepreneurs in certain states through contracts, alliances, pacts, etc. of the respective state with NGOs such as the EU, ECB, UN, UNHCR, WWF, IMF, etc., which must also be taken into account.
How the vegetable farmer would fare in a truly free market economy, without state intervention, cannot therefore be conclusively answered and clarified. It should be clear to everyone that Germany no longer has a chance on the international market due to increasing and ever crazier and more aggressive state intervention.
Yours sincerely
G. Schmidt