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One of Berlin’s big newspapers, the
Berlin Zeitung, flashed images of little piglets today and of mass produced turkeys. This is part of a bigger build up towards a major demonstration on January 18 in which over 20,000 citizens are expected in Berlin to protest against industrial farming in the country-mass meat production being the vivid centerpiece for why it is so bad for people and the environment.

I have been in Germany for the last few weeks and am struck by how hot this topic is becoming-capturing media attention and putting the Green Party into elected positions in different states where animal factory farms have become a major problem. A slow movement is building, garnering ever increasing consumer support towards direct farmer-to-consumer marketing of organic, small-scale, locally produced, humane agriculture products. 

The campaign that is organizing events and the demonstration during Germany’s “Green Week” is called “Meine Landwirtschaft” or “My Agriculture,” building a message to put back agriculture into the hands of better stewards who can respect soil, water and integrate human and animal health into good food for the people and the planet. This year’s theme for the campaign demonstration is “Wir Haben Agrarindustrie Satt!” or “We’re fed up with industrial agriculture!” The poster child: a big pig face.

Speaking of pigs, just after the New Year I visited a sow-raising industrial pig farm near Muenster (about a 4-hour train ride Southwest of Berlin)-the farmer had started out with 400 sows and is now in the business of feeding and impregnating over 1,200 of them. He has them delivered by a company when they have just come of age and hands them off to another contract farmer just as they are about to give birth. The delivery of piglets is more risky.

Many of the people actively working on problems with industrial meat production were surprised that I managed to get access to such a farm-and it’s true, without connections of a friend of a friend, I would not have been able to see such an operation. It is also nearly impossible to visit such operations in the U.S. I got lucky, I guess.