Status: 11.01.2024, 17:00 PM
By: Sven Trautwein
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Industrial agriculture is destroying livelihoods worldwide. The journalist Bartholomäus Grill presents an indictment.
Grill's "Dying Farmers" is about much more than the daily disappearance of more farms and the slow extinction of the profession. Around two billion people worldwide make their living from agriculture. However, technological progress is not only destroying their jobs, but also the livelihoods of all people. The ever-advancing mechanization of agriculture is no longer ecologically sustainable, but to the detriment of everyone, according to the journalist and author in his new book.
Book "Peasant Death" by Bartholomäus Grill
"Peasant Death" by Bartholomäus Grill: How the global agricultural industry is destroying © our livelihoods mhphoto/Imago/Settlers (montage)
Grill sheds light on one of the most devastating developments humanity has ever produced: industrial agriculture and the economic, environmental and social devastation it causes. The focus is on the exploitation of limited biological resources and the comprehensive destruction of our livelihoods. It is a war against nature – and against ourselves. The non-fiction book "Farmers' Death" is an impassioned call for a radical transformation of our agricultural and food system.
We don't see the grass growing, we just trample on it: how the global agricultural industry is destroying traditional agriculture and peasant structures, exacerbating the ecological crisis in the process.
Blurb/Siedler Verlag
In an interview with Deutschlandfunk, Grill even speaks of a "mafia-like felt", a fight for water and ultimately power. Since the 1950s, for example, the introduction of new livestock breeds and concentrated feed has led to a "war against nature and against oneself". In his book, Grill also sheds light on the reduced fertility of the soil due to industrial agriculture. Worldwide, the author told Deutschlandfunk, "the fertility of about 40 percent of arable land has already declined."
The Decline of Rural Farms: A Critical Analysis of Agricultural Policy
The introductory chapters impressively describe the transformation of rural structures in post-war Germany, exemplified by the decay of his father's farm. This is followed by a critical examination of the European agricultural policy, which initially slowed down the decline, but later accelerated it. A special study is devoted to the question of the extent to which the agricultural lobby influences this policy. Two additional chapters deal with the promotion of the cultivation of energy crops and global land degradation. In the chapters that focus on Africa, the focus is primarily on reports from crisis regions. Topics such as drought, population growth and hunger are mainly dealt with here.
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Bartholomäus Grill, who grew up on his parents' farm, which his parents had to give up, describes the effects of industrial agriculture worldwide in a wealth of facts and figures. It is an angry, angry book that is suitable as an introduction to the subject. An interview with Bartholomäus Grill can be found here.
Bartholomäus Grill "Farmer's Death"
How Global Agribusiness Is Destroying Our Livelihoods
2023 Settlers, ISBN-13 978-3-827-50168-4
Price: hardcover 24 €, 240 pages
Bartholomäus Grill: About the Author
Born in 1954 in Oberaudorf am Inn, Bartholomäus Grill spent his childhood on a farm run by his parents according to the principles of the sustainable circular economy. His studies included philosophy, sociology and art history. As a correspondent for ZEIT and SPIEGEL, he has reported from Africa for four decades, repeatedly addressing global agriculture. In 2006 he received the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize for a report on the death of his brother.
Grill is the author of the bestseller "Ach, Afrika" and has published other works such as "Um uns die Toten" (2014), "Wir Herrenmenschen" and "Africa!" (2021). He currently resides in Cape Town.
You can read about what eroded soils have to do with climate change in "The Beast" by John Vaillant.