Many farmers because the state determines how the stables must look like in the future. The farmers ' Association calls for less welfare.

developed Up to the Stall of the future, a lot of pigs without straw and spout photo: Stefan Sauer/dpa

BERLIN taz | The shutdown of farms in Germany, the pig holder to be particularly strong. As the Federal Statistical office announced on Wednesday in Wiesbaden, decreased the number of holdings with pigs between 2010 and 2019 by 35 percent to approximately 21.600. In comparison, the number of agricultural holdings decreased by only 11 percent to approximately 267.000. The Pork was reduced only by 2 per cent to around 26 million animals – the remaining firms keep more and more animals.

Actually small enterprises to give: in 2010, there were 4.200 farms holding less than 100 pigs. Their number was reduced within nine years by 60 percent, to 1,700.

Similar trends in cattle farming. Here the postures are held Operated recorded – a operation can have several attitudes. Between 2010 and 2019, the number of attitudes has fallen by 23 percent.

That there are fewer and fewer farms, can contribute to a more unequal distribution of wealth: Large farms in the cut with less labour per animal. The environment can also suffer If ever fewer companies are keeping more and more animals that can concentrate manure on a smaller area and there is nature and water more than if you would be regionally more evenly distributed.

"animal rights activist offers may about each Stall that is no longer used as a stable," said Ulrich Jasper, national Director of the ecologically-oriented Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft (AbL), the taz. "But therefore not less animals are kept in total in Europe. The Spaniards, Belgians and Poland to increase the pig population. This is a shift. This does not solve the Problem of the animals. This is a Pyrrhic victory for animal rights activists.“

Jasper explains the shutdown of farms, among other things, that over long periods of time, the prices for milk are too low to pay for enough workers. In addition, the pork had just the holder is unsure as to whether their stables to the animal welfare regulations of the future meet. That's why a lot of companies would not invest a lot of. Then, when the children take over the farm, they decided to often about it, so is Jasper. "The policy and the farmers' Union of failure on the site is terrific, because you can't find the courage to identify clear targets, so As to look like the stables in 10, 15 years?", the OJ activist added.

The Secretary-General of the German farmers ' Association, Bernhard Krüsken, calls for because of the Höfesterbens especially a "Moratorium on additional regulations and restrictions that go beyond European Standards," as he left the taz tell. Jasper acknowledges, however, that many citizens demanded to right to keep animals in better – such as a straw or spout. Therefore, the animal protection needs to be tightened up right, but the farmers get more money to the stables to rebuild.

the CDU politician Julia Klöckner-led Federal Ministry of agriculture pointed to his working group under the leadership of former Federal agriculture Minister, Jochen Borchert: "With the broad participation of different social groups, here are the stables of the future should be designed to combine Economy and Ecology in the best possible way," wrote a spokeswoman for the authority of the taz.