Thousands of angry farmers once again take to the streets of Berlin

Thousands of German farmers blocked the center of Berlin with their tractors on Monday, mobilizing en masse against plans to remove tax benefits and subsidies for their profession. Many demonstrators believe they cannot cope with international competition.

“In principle, one can initially assume that we as farmers would prefer to work completely without subsidies. Everyone would like to be paid fairly for the product they produce, etc… We would like to have the opportunity to live well income from our work. However, the reality is that in Germany for many years we have been complying with environmental regulations and implementing measures for animal welfare which, in global competition, put us at a disadvantage, because ‘other countries with much lower standards have significantly lower costs’ says farmer Phillip Oßwald.

The German Farmers’ Association says ending these subsidies could mean the end of farming in Germany. “Indeed, we are experiencing a structural transformation, including an annual decline in farms of 2-3% largely influenced by the poor distribution of EU subsidies. If we were to remove all subsidies overnight, many farms farmers are undoubtedly saying that there are no more prospects and that they would not want their children to pursue this profession. On the other hand, we also have a strong commitment on the part of farmers to continue to exploit their farms and the desire to continue” explains Martin Hofstetter, agricultural policy expert at Greenpeace Germany.

Agricultural experts, however, say that concentrating German agriculture more on the European market would benefit everyone, especially farmers. German farmers are not only angry about cuts in agricultural diesel.

They say that EU and German policies, on which they depend, can change at any time, making long-term planning almost impossible.