My husband and I manage a farm in Rhineland-Palatinate [in Germany] with agriculture and livestock. Agriculture thinks in generations, so we, like many farmers, want at least one of our children to take over the farm later – just as we took it over from our parents. But agriculture has changed.
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Is the farming profession still attractive in times when farmers are made public enemies? Can we still recommend in good conscience that our children become farmers?
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Many people are now critical towards farmers, sometimes even hostile. “The farmers poison our soils and our food with pesticides,” they say. It doesn’t matter that these claims are false.
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Constantly, new laws and regulations force farmers to sit down at a desk to do paperwork, but bureaucracy creates frustration instead of food, because cereal does not grow on a desk …. Agriculture nevertheless has been able to survive thanks to …. advances in breeding, machinery, better planning and expert advice.
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But politics, driven by ideologies that are well-intentioned but lacking expertise, puts more and more obstacles in the way of agriculture. These policies endanger agriculture’s future.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in German. This summary was prepared with Google Translate and lightly edited for clarity.
Read full, original article: Endangered Species: The German farmers have unfortunately become the enemy
