Mariekatrin Tigges

What we need are smallholder structures; that is, farms that don’t produce on a massive scale, that are supported by large numbers of people. We need lots of people working in agriculture, because only systems with lots of people involved are stable. Take for example the slaughterhouse situation in Germany: we’ve got massive slaughterhouses and all the small ones are dying out. Then, if there’s a problem like right now, where one or two of the slaughterhouses have to close, there’s a massive backlog affecting all those supplying the slaughterhouses. Therefore, it’s always important to set up in small, diverse structures. I believe there needs to be a change in thinking there. We have to stop producing in bigger and bigger units, because nature is so unpredictable that you can’t just shove everything into giant boxes. Farming and nature differ from region to region, so we need regional thinking. So if in a state like North Rhine-Westphalia you have agribusinesses that cultivate 1,000 hectares, you can’t standardize that because there will be so many different circumstances across those 1,000 hectares that you can’t work them all with the same machines, or sew the same seed or what have you. Our thought processes simply have to operate on a smaller level and at the moment, unfortunately, things are going in the wrong direction. And I believe that the food marketers and supermarkets have to change their thinking a bit as well. But they are doing so at the moment because society demands it, society wants regional products. People from Arnsberg want to eat food that was produced here in this region. They think that’s great and are willing to pay a bit more for it. And I think that’s completely justified, and we need to work more in that direction.