On Saturday evening German farmers set up \u201cwarning bonfires\u201d at hundreds of sites across the country in a continuation of protests against new environmental controls that have caught Berlin on the back foot.<\/p>\n
The fires come sharp on the heels of a huge protest in Berlin, when close to 9,000 tractors converged on the Brandenburg Gate – many farmers driving overnight from far-flung regions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel that government is being driven by green groups and NGOs. They are chasing the Green party vote and ignoring farmers even though we are their core voters,\u201d said Helmut Lebacher, the organiser of a bonfire in the small Bavarian village of Tyrlaching.<\/p>\n
Himself a cattle farmer, Mr Lebacher said that ever stricter regulations are threatening the financial viability of small farms.<\/p>\n
"I invested a million euros in a new cow shed five years ago, but it wouldn’t get planning today. Constantly changing regulations are making it impossible to plan for the future," he said.<\/p>\n
Another farmer at the demonstration, Matthius Michaelbauer, said that farmers are sick of how they are portrayed in the German media.<\/p>\n
"We are always the bogeyman, the media reports negatively on pesticides and fertiliser without giving the full picture," he said.<\/p>\n
The demonstrations seemed to come from nowhere. Unlike France, where farmers blocking motorways is an integral part of the political landscape, Germany\u2019s rural communities are not known for their activism.<\/p>\n
But discontent has been bubbling under the surface. Tractor protests in Munich over a collapse in milk prices in 2015 provided a taste of what was to come.<\/p>\n
The current demonstrations started in October after Angela Merkel\u2019s government agreed on a new agriculture bill, which sets tough new limits on fertilisers and pesticide usage.<\/p>\n
Of particular distress to farmers is a 20 percent reduction in fertiliser use in large areas of the countryside. The government says it has to comply with EU rules on nitrate levels in the groundwater. Concentrations of nitrate in drinking water pose serious health risks to infants and fertilisers are a major culprit. But farmers suspect environmental agencies are exaggerating the extent of the problem.<\/p>\n
Maike Schulz Broers, the protests’ co-initiator, told\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0that fertiliser restrictions \u201cwouldn\u2019t just lead to a drop in the harvest, it would mean crops would take the additional nutrients from the earth, which would quickly impoverish the soil.\u201d<\/p>\n For her, this is evidence government policy is \u201cdriven by ideology not facts.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Merkel\u2019s Christian Democrats, who have locked down the farming vote for generations, have tried to appear accommodating, stressing that the bill \u201cis not yet law.\u201d But they\u2019ve made clear compromising on environmental standards is a red line, saying their hands are tied after losing appeal against fertiliser rules imposed by the EU.<\/p>\n The protesters\u2019 list of gripes stretches much further than the draft law, though. Some are angry wolf numbers have been allowed to swell, leaving sheep as easy prey. Meanwhile a sense that city dwellers don\u2019t respect, or are even flat out hostile to, farmers permeates the protests.<\/p>\n Ms Schulz Broers, owner of a wheat farm south of Hamburg, says Germany\u2019s liberal city dwellers want it both ways – they want farmers to go organic but still want a reliable supply of affordable food.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they want us to move to organic farming, fine. But they should know that it leads to lower production,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The protests have met criticism from the Green party, who accuse farmers of \u201cignoring the seriousness of biodiversity loss and water pollution.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n