Can farmers grow money? | DW Documentary

[Music] environmental damage caused by the farming industry has been on the rise in recent years animals are often mistreated in Germany a growing number of people want to see changes to agricultural policy but little has shifted could this be because of lobbyists in the agricultural sector are lobbyists more powerful in this policy area than in others our research revealed a tightly intertwined web of interests in which corporations influential figures Manning several lobbying positions and politicians are closely linked a lot is at stake during the making of this film billions of euros in agricultural subsidies were being negotiated in Brussels and Germany was under EU pressure to finally impose stricter limits on the amount of liquid manure used on its fields who is pulling the strings behind the scenes [Music] Brussels farmers and conservation groups from across Europe are protesting outside the headquarters of the European Commission to call for a change in agricultural policy they collected a hundred thousand signatures for a petition demanding subsidies for farmers who produce food in an environmentally friendly fashion the demonstration was organized to coincide with an EU negotiation on farming subsidies totaling 55 billion euros a year Martin hoist Ling is a member of the European Parliament and an organic farmer the Green Party politician has been campaigning for years for environmentally-friendly farming to be awarded with subsidies but on the other side there are powerful lobby interests it's not as if money isn't being made from farming in Europe it's a profitable business the food industry is one of the EU s main export earners so naturally they're eager to ensure that the EU pumps a lot of money into the agricultural sector when no vision in God become martin hoist ling says taxpayers money is currently being used to indirectly support corporations but that it should serve society as a whole the european parliament has been negotiating the redistribution of farming subsidies for months a total of 55 billion euros per year the largest slice of the EU expenditure powerful lobby groups are clamoring to maximize their share but whose interests will prevail in the European Parliament Martin hi sling is part of a team negotiating farming issues for the Green Party and he's preparing for ever bathe scheduled for the next day Hannes Lorenz senior advisor on Agriculture and Rural Development joins moistening to go over the strategy I think we should try to push the point that current agricultural challenges are going to get worse if things don't change soil and fertility will drop further sure but that's why we have to emphasize it even more there are plenty of figures and supporting documents and the Commission described the situation correctly in its appraisal so the question is why aren't we taking action yet that should be enough for the two minutes two minutes is what Martin hoisting will have to present his most important arguments to other members of the European Parliament I do have a degree of anger in me it's just ridiculous that they still haven't understood it we have so much evidence that this form of farming will be our ruins but there are still people sitting there saying now everything's ok if we can explain it in a different way they'll understand it it's the evening before the first round of talks which sides interests will come out on top in the debate and why the next morning German conservative MEP Albert desu is likewise preparing for the debate des is also chairman of Bayern lund one of the biggest producers of dairy products in Germany he takes a skeptical view of investments in environmental protection the discussions I find arguments calling for the farming sector to become more environmentally misled if we said that from now on 20% of the land should be used environmentally that would result in production being relocated to farming areas around the world des says that if more German land is used in a way that benefits the environment major producers will inevitably go elsewhere he wants the status quo maintained under which funding is awarded on a per hectare basis Dez's offices around the corner from that of Social Democrat Maria Noel she takes exception to taxpayers money being allocated according to land area finish the big question is which farmers received support and the answer for me is that public funding should be for services in the public interest you should get money not simply for owning land but depending on what you do with it it's activity that ought to be rewarded not ownership there are two clear camps here policies that favor the environment and the common good or those that mean the more land you own the more money you are paid the different parties make their way over to the Agriculture Committee Martin hoist Lange will also be there and will face powerful opponents and if the food industry and its representatives here in Parliament weren't so powerful I believe things would be moving in a different direction but the food industry depends on direct payment subsidies to be able to compete and export markets of a spot not again come Martin hoisting wants to see an eco-friendly agricultural policy as do environmental and consumer protection groups the --use farming policy is hammered out here by the agricultural committee which side will end up getting its way albert des is the CEO of a major dairy producer watching hoisting is an organic farmer and Maria Noel is a former teacher Phil Keoghan is the European Commissioner for agriculture and rural development and an advocate of area based subsidies to ensure community in particular by increasing the areas of persons engaged time for Martin hoisting to have his safe also housing a weak proposal from the Commission looks like things will get even worse except for those few fancy headlines will moistening managed to convince his colleagues we'll be returning to the debate in Brussels later Cologne back at our editorial offices we want to investigate who is pulling the strings behind closed doors our industry lobby groups determining agricultural policy and if so how we come across a revealing document from 2015 by the scientific advisory board of the German Ministry of Agriculture the paper concluded that policy was strongly influenced by interest groups because of the powerful and effective farming and agribusiness Lobby how does this impact farmers and what has changed in the past four years we head out to do some research on the ground one environmental issue is groundwater pollution it's been known for years that the excessive use of liquid manure in fields leads to nitrate groundwater contamination in June 2018 Germany was condemned for exceeding EU fertiliser limits and currently faces fines of up to 850 thousand euros per day until it reduces its use of liquid manure we're in North rhine-westphalia where a lot of liquid manure is produced how are the farmers dealing with the problem this farm belongs to Martin roms rota who also rears pigs he has had this farm for forty years and as we arrive he's preparing a delivery of pigs for slaughter currently each pig yields 20 euros in profit in some years this drops to just six heroes [Applause] you come out short the math is pretty simple right now it's 20 euros per pig if I sell 1000 pigs a year all I earn is 20000 euros and that's our family income you don't get far on that coming evironment 20000 euros for one year of hard work from children may be a part of a billion euro industry but his own profit margin is slim we currently have 850 pigs if we wanted to live solely off fatten pigs we'd have to have 4000 it's insane it would mean even more liquid manure that needs distributing the farmer says he already has too much manure he has fields full of crops but they aren't enough to dispose of all the animal waste his manure tank as he shows us is full to the brim we already have far too much liquid manure for our fields we have to have 300 cubic metres picked up and taken away because we have too many pigs the excess manure ends up several hundred kilometers away on other farmers fields liquid manure is a valuable fertilizer but there's simply too much of it what kind of system is this where a pig is now worth practically nothing small-scale farmers live at subsistence level and the huge quantities of liquid manure are increasingly polluting Germany's drinking water each pig that Rahm shoulder drives off to the slaughterhouse has a so-called slaughter weight of around 100 kilos the average price of pork in German supermarkets is six euros seventy per kilo every year some sixty five million pigs are slaughtered in the country it's a billion euro market that is a huge earner for industry chemical companies make money from medication and pesticides the farm supplies sector from fodder mixtures and fertilizers the grow financial industry from loans for agricultural machinery and large-scale animal sheds the meat industry from slaughtering and processing and finally the retail sector from the sale of food products and production continues to rise Germany is now the world's third biggest exporter of food in order to survive martin rom salta says he'd have to expand which would first mean going into debt there is a farmers union but he doesn't sense much support from them they have no interest in the small farmers only in the quantities of feed they can sell and in keeping these feed pellet plants running the people representing the union also sit on the boards of big companies including the collectors the abbatoirs and insurance firms I can't make sense of it we have managers in the Union who are at the same time working for major companies in response to our query the German Farmers Union insisted it also represents the interest of small-scale farmers the agricultural industry continues to increase turnover but at what price to the public our next stop is Lower Saxony where we meet a gun harms from the Oldenburg Water Board for years he's found the nitrate levels in water just below ground to be worryingly high we're very concerned that the pollution we're currently only seeing below the surface will at some point seep deeper to the level we get our water from fattening based on his measurements the hydrologist is able to calculate how the ground water quality will deteriorate in the future what does he make of the government's approach I'm status problem instead of recognizing the problem early on and working with us on solutions they said there was no nitrate problem a few of them still claim that yes the company now that the EU is threatening to impose fines time is running short an action has to be taken we accompany him to the land where he will inspect his latest sample too much nitrate in drinking water is carcinogenic with young children particularly at risk expensive filter systems might soon become necessary but that would almost double the price of water in some regions according to the energy and water management Industry Association today's results are hardly encouraging 119 point 6 just under 120 milligrams per litre that's more than twice the permitted limit his colleagues elsewhere in Germany are also finding critical levels water board officials are urgently calling for measures to be taken when it comes to fighting for more stringent regulations for manure we continually find ourselves up against the agribusiness Lobby they've been managing to prevent stricter regulations for years an official phone dead ringer for Art Monk at sofa hynden could tightening Germany's fertilizer legislation keep the country's drinking water safe it's a debate with a lot at stake because less liquid manure would also mean fewer pigs which would in turn have consequences for the entire industry for years the German government has failed to agree on a solution makes you wonder who's in bed with whom there's a lot of money involved who actually influences farming policy that's the question our parliament members subjected to so much lobbying influence that you have to ask whether they're still acting with the public's interest in mind we begin researching whose interests politicians in key positions are really representing and begin examining how fertilizer legislation was decided in the past Germany's government has known for years that it has to act not least due to pressure from the EU over excessive nitrate levels in the groundwater time and time again however amendments have been postponed in 2016 the German Parliament's Agriculture Committee began examining how much liquid manure should be allowed on crops attending the meeting was one of the most renowned scientists in his field he calculated how much nitrogen from liquid manure or artificial fertilizer crops need to grow that's form welcome to you all I would like to introduce our expert speaker professor Fred hem tauba from the Christian albrecht University in Kiel together with 30 other scientists Friedhelm talbot calculated how much nitrogen plants such as maize need to grow the researchers found this to be 150 kilograms per hectare and professor tompa recommended this figure at the hearing but just before the negotiation ended the committee decided to recommend 200 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare significantly more fertilizer than the plants can actually absorb according to the experts the surplus seeps into the groundwater in the form of nitrates [Music] the scientists were asked for their expert opinion at the Agriculture Committee hearing but their findings were not adopted it's extremely problematic for a scientist to see how legislation is being based on deals here levels that are far removed from scientific knowledge know how is it we're meeting professor Talbot two years after the hearing he tells us the 2017 amendment regarding the nitrogen level has had enormous consequences des padorin Oakland Oakland farmers can now use this additional amount of fertilizer this was not on the agenda beforehand it was slipped into those negotiations right at the end with India final but fine gorgeous and who was behind that to answer this question we begin by identifying which German parliament members worked on the legislation the preparation of such bills takes place behind closed doors here in the Agriculture Committee this is where decisions are made on how animals are kept and how food is produced our analyses revealed that almost half the parliamentarians on the committee have direct links to agriculture a large proportion of them also hold high-level positions in the agriculture industry in the farmers association or in the agribusiness financial sector and that proportion is particularly high in the conservative cdu/csu parliamentary group what did these MPs say and do in the committee in 2017 British ostendorf from the Green Party remembers the negotiations vividly it's all that the Christian Democrats and Christian social Union people did was stall they torpedoed the whole thing it was an endless process and we in the opposition got a pretty good picture of events because Social Democrat colleagues would come over to cry on our shoulders they said you can't imagine how tough going the negotiations are how difficult it is to get any kind of agreement vil Humphrey Smyre is from the junior coalition partner Social Democrats and was involved in the talks firsthand he tells us he fought long and hard for stricter legislation on fertilizers I feel like a bit of a failure because I could have done better who made you fail on my colleagues from the Christian Democrats and also the interest groups behind the scenes who are also represented there in these negotiations there was relatively tight solidarity between the Farmers Union and the CDU many colleagues are also members of the Union there are very important issues on the table and they exert their influence does this mean some members of the Agriculture Committee are biased towards industry interests street fished ostendorf thinks at least two members are we know of Conn Joseph Hudson company and Johanna schooling are high profile conservative MPs connected to farming they were definitely not among those pushing for progressive fertiliser legislation instead they stalled proceedings massively each time claiming they were protecting their farmers I'd call it protecting their business interests Franz Josef Hoatzin camp was then chairman of the Christian Democrat group on the committee Johanna squirreling is his successor in February 2017 the German parliament voted on the fertilizer legislation ronzo supposin Kampf talked to the floor confident of victory we've done something good for the future I ask you all to vote in favor the legislation was passed with the conservative Social Democrat majority but then Brussels announced its response the outcome alarmed the EU which said the amendments didn't sufficiently protect drinking water the threat of the fine for Germany is still unresolved back in Cologne in 2019 we are researching which unspoken interests influence the vote in Berlin how many politicians have ties to industry and which companies do they work for we meet ketone ich fits a researcher from the University of Bremen on behalf of the nature conservation group nab you knew Schmitz took a closer look at leaders in the agriculture sector and at politicians and mapped out the various connections he found the following influence at the government level at least in the agricultural sector is wielded by individuals who are what you would call multi-function earrings who wear a multitude of hats they represent associations on the agricultural sector are rooted in agribusiness and ideally also hold positions on supervisory boards of manufacturers or industry groups this enables me to exert my influence indirectly and ensure my interests are realized also in the agricultural committees in Europe and in Berlin former Bundestag member franz joseph hudson camp is such a multi-function area the fertilizer amendment was the last item of legislation he helped introduce before moving completely into industry he's now president of the rai facin confederation Germany's biggest umbrella group representing farming collectives and also sits on the board of an association representing corporations alongside executives from buyer and other Agri diets back when he was negotiating the new fertilizer legislation in the German parliament Bolton camp was already on the Supervisory Board of Agra is one of the biggest producers of agricultural products in Germany we take a closer look at a gravis the commercial cooperative has a prominent stand at this trade fair in Minster a gravis turns over 6 billion euros a year and essentially sells everything the agricultural industry offers farmers animal feed seeds pesticides and mineral and nitrogen fertilizers in its annual management report from 2016 the company warned that stricter fertiliser legislation would likely lead to a significant decline in revenue in 2016 Franz Joseph Watson Kampf was still an MP and on the Supervisory Board of Agra is on the German Parliament's website which lists all his additional posts and paygrades we can see that while Halton Kampf was negotiating the legislative amendment a gravis increased his salary from level two to level three he went from earning up to seven thousand euros a month to earning up to fifteen thousand euros a month a coincidence Watson come said he did not have time to be interviewed but he did provide a written response to our questions he said the sighted figures are unfounded and that secondary posts are permitted under legislation governing parliamentarians he did not respond to our question regarding a conflict of interest Hoatzin camp retired from politics in 2017 to concentrate fully on his work in the agribusiness sector he was succeeded on the Agriculture Committee by Johannes ruling like Holtz and comp Waring also works for a gravis and was involved in negotiating the fertiliser amendment this multifunction area is reportedly one of the top earners in the Bundestag [Music] who is Johanna swerving the MP obtained most of his industry posts only after he became his party spokesman on the Agriculture Committee roaring currently holds around 15 positions in various corporations lobby groups and the banking sector to name just a few lurking is on the board of trustees of quality to initial height a company responsible for checking quality and safety standards in the food sector he's also president of a regional branch of the farmers association as well as on the Supervisory Board of DZ hoot a leading provider of real estate financial services in Germany and he's on the Supervisory Board of the LVM insurance group's pension fund division johannes berthing also works for fertiliser supplier agraja s-- where he sits on the advisory board butchering said he did not have time for an interview with us due to scheduling commitments our question about whether he had conflicts of interest went unanswered AG Ravi sent us a written response saying the company did not see a conflict of interest for revering or Holton comp and that both politicians act according to their conscience Brussels the EU is threatening Germany with fines of up to 850 thousand euros a day for breaching EU fertiliser limits it wants the country to revise its legislation so that its fertiliser use complies with EU directives protecting groundwater quality we asked Germany's Minister of Agriculture Yulia Klockner how she sees lobbyists in agriculture the secondary posts of a lot of parliamentarians on the Agriculture Committee especially from the conservative faction are mainly within industry how do you ensure a balance this isn't heard there mainly within industry if someone has their own farm I'm talking about executive appointments at major agricultural corporations well I know that get economy isn't on any supervisory board nor is milena mortola or other people I think we should stay fair here and refrain from using these black and white categories there are interests everywhere and someone having interests isn't necessarily bad they need to firstly be transparent and secondly also not make political decisions according to one group's interests but considering the various groups interests mouth clashed left but how realistic is this when industry has such a strong influence on politicians bank accounts we go to bond to hear what a constitutional law expert thinks about members of the Agriculture Committee simultaneously holding posts in industry Oh Dody Fabio spent 12 years as a judge on Germany's Federal Constitutional Court the saga whether parliamentarians should be allowed to represent other interests is a question that's been around since the dawn of the parliamentary system but in the case of obvious industry interests and personal ties we do have to ask critical questions get MinnKota so far from staying Muslim these questions should first be asked in the parliamentary arena itself and without moralizing or demonizing but rather demanding for greater transparency before long it was transparent sue Mahone so just how transparent are German politicians regarding their various interests gido nish mitts spent 12 months analyzing how parliamentarians and lobby groups work in tandem his research has laid bare the various connections you need somebody to collect process and fact check this information something a regular citizen does not have the capacity for also because in some cases there's insufficient public data on how many positions an individual has and with which conflicts and collisions of interest that makes it pretty much impossible to see who was doing what where and why information is publicly available but the details are hard to decipher in Berlin we visit the Grune Avoca or Green Week it's one of the biggest events on the global agricultural trade fair calendar and a chance for agribusiness to do some grandstanding it's also a meet-and-greet for farming ministers and industry stakeholders and the most important lobbyist is Joakim brooke feet president of the German and the European farmers unions his job centers on friendly relations with politicians he's considered one of the most influential individuals in the agribusiness sector farmers union president rook vite has an array of links to the industry he holds over a dozen high-ranking posts in a range of different companies and lobby groups from banks to fertiliser suppliers and Zuka the world's biggest sugar producer rook fates influence extends far beyond Germany's borders Phil Hogan is also at Green Week in Berlin as European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Hogan is the key figure in the allocation of agricultural subsidies [Music] Joakim buckwheat is eager to rub shoulders with the commissioner EU headquarters in Brussels it's now just a few weeks before the agriculture committees vote on agricultural subsidies the biggest item in the EU s budget and the allocation of funds has been hotly debated Commissioner Phil Hogan has presented a proposal that would retain the system of area based payments at the committee meeting we catch up with the three German members of the European Parliament Conservative Albert desk chairman of a major supplier of dairy products the Green Party's Martin hoist lang an organic farmer and Social Democrat and former teacher Maria the Commissioner defends the old MEP Martin hoisting voices his criticism of the system thank you I'm a little disappointed mr. Hogan I agree with the Court of Auditors that the climate objectives cannot be achieved with the first pillar of payments I have not found a concrete point perhaps mr. Hogan would care to pay attention it's nice of mr. Hogan to listen to what members have to say we're actually just continuing as before but under new headings great headlines but it's highly doubtful that we'll be able to meet environmental and climate objectives thank you very much it seems those with environmental concerns have a hard time being heard here conservative Albert des defends the policy by downplaying the amount of subsidies involved if you take all the public expenditure in Europe from Brussels agriculture accounts for less than 1% we need to make that clear to the public that farming is not the huge beneficiary of subsidies that it's always made out to be says we need to increase the amount of food exports in order to be able to feed the world we have to boost productivity by 2050 the world will need 60 percent more food increasing productivity it does not mean that the environment will be harmed because you cannot empirically prove that this initiative studies that establish a connection between agro chemicals and environmental damage are unreliable according to des who is constantly going from one committee meeting to the next in the pesticides Committee for example he advocates the use of glyphosate who is Albert deaths over the last 50 years the Bavarian has been involved in agricultural policy from local town councils to the German and European Parliament's he became an MEP in 2004 Albert death is another well-connected official the qualified farm manager is honorary chairman of the Bavarian Farmers Union for more than 20 years he has been chairman of one of Germany's largest dairies Bayern lund which produces cheese for supermarket chains and for export and posts annual sales in excess of 1 billion euros plus the MEP is also on the advisory board of Germany's largest agricultural conglomerate bhuvah Act and Gesellschaft which also has a large food export business [Applause] [Music] but Albert desk sees no conflict of interest he sees no problem in reconciling his executive position at the dairy producer with his responsibilities as a member of the European Parliament other MEP s however take a critical view of such proximity to industry one of them is social democrat maria noise l does how they vote suggests there's someone else pulling the strings absolutely and I can give you an example I don't think your mind mister dis repeatedly uses the word we we are of the opinion that and I often say mister dis or rather Albert who is this we today your party the Farmers Union or the dairy collective your chairman of this we becomes blurred when he says we are of the opinion that that is when I notice how his position isn't clear and how important it is for a parliamentarian to remind themselves of their duty to the public we're not here to get the best deal on behalf of a dairy company I've not been mandated to ensure that farmers receive direct payments with a minimum of conditions to fill what I am here for is to conduct agricultural policy for the entire population back in our offices in Cologne considering the industry interests present in the committee's can the Parliament still make balanced decisions invidious if we place the three sheets on top of each other we'll get a picture of how the system works the full picture shows the web of connections between the key corporations lobby groups and politicians their representatives sit on the same committees allowing them to coordinate their strategies these connections have evolved over several decades today they have become a sturdy system that can withstand reform efforts Brussels in the spring of 2019 a few days before the vote the tension is palpable in the offices of Martin hoisting and we're not the only TV crew here will he get a majority for his cause the committee is basically split two ways meaning which direction things will go in comes down to a handful of people at this point we're about to find out whether we'll get this majority or that majority it's exciting because the outcome is still unwritten this is no joke among Maria Doyle is also working on a motion for the Agriculture Committee which aims to expose conflicts of interest half of the MEP s on the committee are themselves farmers they are therefore direct beneficiaries of the subsidies which automatically leads to a conflict of interest says nor shall I was a town councillor in rosenheim for over ten years which is its own administrative district it was completely normal there to abstain from certain votes because of partiality for example if there is owning plants for developing a location and you happen to have land there it would be dishonest to vote and also prohibited so in a municipal assembly having a conflict of interests is no big deal you just shift your chair back to signal you have a vested interest I'd imagine that's how it would be in the European Parliament too but sadly it's not there is in fact a code of conduct in the European Parliament it stipulates that MEP s should disclose any conflict of interest in writing but ultimately this has no consequences for the vote on the --use Common Agricultural Policy in April 2019 the Agriculture Committee decides to maintain the model of area based land subsidies around half of the members voting have ties to the industry we speak to constitutional law expert Dodie Fabio again he calls for more transparency in the system in Brussels and Berlin Louise most people for Friedman released on lobbying comes from various directions and as part of the parliamentary system but it has to be visible and not done in the shadows because if it happens covertly and is then suddenly exposed it damages public confidence some interesting mystical de fabio thinks self-regulation is a sensible approach a kind of standardized conscience check what we learned from our research is that we need better rules regarding transparency plus a code of conduct for cases where politicians stand to gain financially from a decision because while having secondary jobs in industry is permitted it seems to also compromise the credibility of Europe's democratic system [Music] you [Music]

Channel: DW Documentary

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Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, DW documentary 2019, full documentary, documentary 2019, DW, beyond the news, agricultural reform, European policy, EU, lobbying, sustainable agriculture, ecology, animal rights, agricultural lobby, common agricultural policy, farming, farmer, agriculture

Id: QAdw7N9l1tM

Length: 42min 26sec (2546 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 09 2019