Many farmers from the region made their way to berlin on tuesday with their tractors to protest against the agricultural policy there. The police counted around 5600 tractors and over 40000 participants in the federal capital, some of them also from the coburg region. Not all farmers from the region were able to take part in the rough demonstration. In order to support the protest of the colleagues in berlin and to draw the attention of the population to their situation, several bonfires were lit at prominent points in the district of coburg on tuesday evening.
Raising awareness among the population
For example, in lahm, not far from highway 4, and on the hummelberg between buchenrod and scherneck, where the fire was visible from afar. "We want to actively support our colleagues in berlin and make the population aware of our problems", the farmers said unanimously. They no longer wanted to be pilloried as environmental sinners. Rather, they want to use these protest actions to draw the people's attention to their situation – which is anything but easy.
"We feed the people
Farmers met at all the bonfires, which were guarded by fire departments. Interested people joined and it was discussed until late at night. At the warm fire the main topic was the agricultural policy of the federal government, which was strongly criticized by everyone. Farmers and their work have a bad reputation in society, but this is not understood. Reinhard grell from lahm was not the only one to say: "we no longer want to be seen as the bogeymen of the nation. Because a good job is done by us, valuable food is produced, which makes people full every day."
For several weeks now, farmers have also been making a silent protest against the agricultural policy, as evidenced by the green crosses in the fields. The new agricultural package regulates the use of various sprays, including the restriction of the controversial glyphosate. Often, this means a considerable extra work for the farmers.
Furthermore, farmers are resisting the new dung ordinance. In the lower itzgrund in particular, excessive nitrate levels were found in the groundwater at two measuring points that are relatively unfavorably located. That is why the lower itzgrund was declared a red area. For this reason, farmers there have to observe increased requirements when dunging. "Many specifications from these ordinances cannot be implemented in practice", emphasized reinhard grell.
The ordinances were made without the farmers. Furthermore, farmers suffered from the many controls and the high level of bureaucracy.
A trade agreement with the USA or the EU's mercosur agreement with sudamerica were also discussed at the firesides. "I wonder if they have such strict controls as we have.", not only reinhard grell wondered. As far as the mercosur countries are concerned, there are not as strict requirements to protect the climate and the environment as in the EU and germany. There is also a different approach to the use of antibiotics and pesticides. This has led to dramatic distortions in competition. Grell: "for many farms, which often feed entire families, this means the end."