Rain

We were promised rain today and to be fair we did get a 3-minute shower mid-afternoon, the results of which were largely steamed off within minutes of hitting the ground.

In Berlin, the politicians are slowly returning from their holidays and today the Agriculture Minister was faced with meeting farming representatives who are asking for drought cash relief. She is saying "Not yet, let's wait until the harvests are done". The individual States are free to help as they see fit. Our particular part of southern Bavaria hasn't suffered for instance.

The whole issue is complicated and starts with why don't we compensate ice-cream sellers, breweries and beer garden owners or beach deckchair renters when we have a rainy summer? Why don't the winegrowers give some of their windfall bumper crop profits this year to their dairy and cereal colleagues?

On the other hand, food is essential for us and we must help protect it. And the policies of the government and the EU have not always been helpful with regard to global warming.

But many of the farmers have gleefully accepted the handouts and grown crops that simply increase the problems knowing only too well that they were filling their bank balances (and the agricultural machinery company's). Land husbandry flew out the window decades ago.

One of the best suggestions I heard was from the Green Party who said there should be an immediate ban on using potential feed (grass silage and maize silage) that are used to fuel the organic gas "farms" that have sprung up like mushrooms in the last decades. No longer do they get fed with waste as was originally planned but use 1st class grass and maize grown solely for the purpose. The "organic gas farmers" cashing in on agricultural subsidies for the fields and renewable energy subsidies from the extra renewable electricity tax we pay here on every kilowatt we use regardless of how it was produced. And of course, the more favoured maize is ruining our countryside, wildlife and soil structure while pushing up the field rents astronomically that in turn force smaller farmers to give up. 

And very interestingly this evening came a TV report from a government agricultural research institute in the heart of the drought-stricken eastern part of Germany that showed that there was indeed an awful lot one could do in terms of growing drought-resistant crops as has been shown by many organic farmers who have been forced to adapt as they cannot use the "modern" aides of farming such as genetically engineered seeds, herbicides, pesticides from the likes of Monsanto. Thank goodness they have today, at last, had a very big court fine handed to them by a USA court. The judge's verdict was probably helped by the fact a stupid German company, Bayer, bought Monsanto last year, despite the writing on the wall. No pity from me.