Milchbauern in Not: Politisch gewollt?

The treatment of the dairy industry has been a major problem for the farmers for decades, which, in their view, urgently needs to be improved. Epoch Times spoke at a meeting of the farmers in the south of Berlin with a dairy farmer and two dairy farmers about their situation. Together, on September 10, 2023, they held a symposium organized by farmers under the motto, Farmers dead, all in need, share. Ms. Bielefeld, you come from the North Sea, from the beautiful Jardbusen at the northern tip of Lower Saxony, where you have been running a dairy farm for well over 500 years in family ownership. How exactly can you imagine your farm? At the moment, we have about 135 cows, about the same number of hectares, 100-135 hectares. Almost everything is our own land, and we manage that together with our family. But mainly milk and then the corresponding young cattle, of course. Of course, we also raise all our calves ourselves. We know every cow from head to toe. That's nice. Of course, I still produce calf milk, just not under this label anymore. I quit now because it just annoys me that it is not marketed the way it should be if you look at it from a marketing point of view. In other words, it should be all liters that are created under all these controls, namely cow on the pasture, genetically free feeding, etc., which is then in demand. Then, of course, every liter produced should also be marked on the product. That's how market economy works. But at the moment, as far as I know, 10 percent is marked in this way and 90 percent disappears in the conventional way. And as I said, I'm no longer under the label anyway, but the cow is still on the pasture. That means there can be no market economy. Market economy is first transparency and then the customer has to decide how the pricing is. This is again a business between the farmer and the recipient, that is, the respective milkman. That's where the fair prices have to be. Whether the customer is then willing to buy in accordingly expensive or not, that would be seen. And in the end, it's not about this black and white drawing. Market economy is then oriented towards percentage profits, in my opinion. And if you could maybe animate three or five percent more for a liter of drinking milk through a transparent label, five cents more for a liter of drinking milk, then we have already achieved something. Why is it so difficult nowadays with electronics? It's totally easy to make it transparent, it's not a problem at all. But apparently the respective recipient of our milking doesn't want to have it on there either. The nice thing is that the consumer only finds the milk product in the refrigerated shelf, the nicely welded cheese slices and so on. That's where it says wonderfully. But if I go to a cheese factory and this cheese produced in the same way is not appreciated there as milk cheese, because the customer can't take it in their hands, how is market economy supposed to work? And it's a bit presumptuous to expect that those who really dig deeper into the pocket and buy both milk products, as I said, only these ten percent, they should then contribute the remaining 90 percent also economically. What kind of madness is that? That's not market economy. Then someone didn't understand market economy. Those who then say, we have utopian many cows that are kept terribly, always have the argument on their side, because look how many consumer products we have. And how few pasture milk products. Exactly that. It's getting less and less. And the farmers then continue to increase with it. This system in particular destroys the farmers who keep their animals that way. And under all possible other circumstances, this is of course a point that drives the farmers to give up. I don't know. You can see the fight against the farmers is going on all over the world. It's an agenda that is being pursued by the government representatives in the most affected countries. We live in fear. What are you going to do next with us? It's a human-made crisis. This human-made decision has put us in a very bad situation. This is a problem when environmental politics is more about politics than results. The government wants to control food. So we don't eat meat, but insects or something similar. We can put insects in all products. In burgers, noodles, bread, smoothies. This is the future of food, so to speak. Yes, this is the future of food. There is a group of people who believe that they are doing something good to nature. And they are against farms. And why? I don't know. They probably think that we are doing everything wrong. We are heading for a time of considerable food shortages. Many millions of people will have to starve. And that is simply completely unnecessary. I am Thomas Schneekloth, 53 years old. I run a dairy farm in Schleswig-Holstein. We currently have 350 cows on the farm. We do 100 hectares of green farming and 170 hectares of agriculture. There is not much profit in dairy farming at the moment. Last year we had 59 cents at the top or 60 cents. And now we are at 34.8 cents per liter. This is on average the production costs from the beginning of 40 cents, which we need at least. And that is the problem for us. And my son is also on the farm right now. He is now finished with training. And now it's time to do something. And we now want to invest in renewable energies. And keep agriculture as it is. We hope that it will get better again. Also in the market fruit. Last year we had prices of almost 30 euros for wheat. And now we have prices of 17 euros for wheat. So the price has about halved. I come from Niederachsen. We run a mixed business there. With a focus on dairy farming. That is also close to my heart. And the whole game has a hook. The dairy market itself is oriented according to the Reichs-Nährstands-Regulation. With the obligation and the compulsory acceptance that is carried out in the country via the raw iron mills. The raw iron mills take up 70% of the raw milk. And 30% go via the free mills. And since they are networked in the roofing association, we already have a considerable monopoly at 70%. Which certainly makes the participation on the market difficult or impossible for everyone else. We always have the problem that a small dent is explained to us in the price. But in reality it is the system. We have divided the raw milk price in three areas in Germany. Once in the west, once in the east and once in the south. Because there are different structures. This index is now running for 20 years. Every three months, as I said, it is renewed. And we have not reached this milk price index with our milk price in the last 20 years. In the past three quarters, we have reached this price. And in the last three quarters, we have had a sufficient milk price. And not the other years. And that can't be good. Everyone knows that if you add money, it doesn't end well. Then the question arises, how did they do it? If older generations work with it, child labor, added labor, in the end you get the curve. But it is not foreseen that we will always work on it until we have really milked the last cow. Why is the milk price fluctuating so much and that you are not oriented to the index? The index is one of ours, not of the milkers. They want to shop as cheaply as possible. The fluctuation itself is tried with awe that it doesn't happen. In the last moment. But it happens. It happened once in the form because the milk fell on com-exorbitant. For several reasons, sometimes more than one reason comes together. You saw, yes, it is due to the quantity. But unfortunately, God does not work on the quantity. No, it is also ensured that the milk quantity is always nice and constant because the milkers need the raw material to ultimately do their business with it. We currently have a big difference between the milk payment price and the spot market that the milkers have under them. The question is justified. Why is that all of a sudden? There is only the assumption that the price must stay low and the raw material quantity must be brought from somewhere. That is the problem with the milk market. Thank you very much.