why firms lost their charm today German
farms are agriculture factories with
milking sheds that are almost completely
automated and satellite-guided
harvesters that cost half a million
euros many farmers have tossed in the
towel in the last ten years more than
800 farms have shut down each month the
result fewer small farms and larger
farms requiring government subsidies in
2016 German farmers receive subsidies
totaling nearly six and a half billion
euros in the EU farm subsidies came to
around 55 billion euros 40 percent of
the entire budget most countries
worldwide subsidize their agricultural
industries and this sector is very
productive it feeds 82 million people in
Germany 740 million in Europe and it
could supply nearly seven-and-a-half
billion people worldwide more than ever
before
nowhere in Europe our groceries as
affordable as in Germany at discount
grocery stores a kilo of pork costs
about two euros as much as a couple of
shoelaces a liter of milk goes for forty
two euros cents a kilo of potatoes is 69
cents an egg just eight cents let's stay
with eggs for a moment they're produced
by hens roosters are not profitable they
have less fat than their female
counterparts so the male chicks are
separated at birth gassed and shredded
it's efficient but damaging to the
farmers image in Germany agribusiness is
coming under increasingly strong
criticism that it treats animals like a
mere commodity