Bavarian farmers fight against burnout: When health collides with capitalism
Created: 05/13/2022, 05:45
By: Thomas Eldersch
More and more farmers in Bavaria are overwhelmed and depressed.
This harms both humans and animals.
© Sven Hoppe/dpa/Screenshot BR across
Work till you drop.
The farmer's job is becoming more and more demanding.
As a result, more and more farmers are suffering from anxiety and depression.
Munich – When a farmer suffers from burnout or depression, it is often not only he and his family who are left behind, but increasingly so are the animals.
Only in April did a farmer in Middle Franconia have to answer to a court because more than 170 cattle starved and died of thirst on his farm.
And recently, more than 20 cows died in agony on a farm in the Upper Palatinate.
Each time the rancher was overwhelmed, burned out and exhausted.
A study from Salzburg paints an even bleaker picture.
BR "quer": Excessive demands almost drove a farmer from Upper Bavaria to suicide
In the BR program "quer", the mayor and ex-farmer from Feldkirchen-Westerham (Rosenheim district), Hans Schaberl, talks about his darkest time.
It was difficult for him to get out of bed.
Dark thoughts circled around the clock in his head.
Most recently, the current mayor thought about taking his own life.
"What am I doing in this world?
Why am I still here?
If I wasn't there we would save money.
You only cost money.
You're just a useless eater, "he describes the situation at the time.
Only when he opens up to his family does he heal.
Farmer Hans Schaberl was almost driven to suicide by his job.
© Screenshot BR across
His son has now taken over his farm.
Schaberl sought help from the rural family advisory service and took a cure.
His offspring doesn't want to let it go as far as their father.
The son bakes smaller rolls and takes care of a small cattle herd.
BR "across": Study from Salzburg paints a bleak picture
But why is it that more and more farmers and ranchers are slipping into burnout or depression?
Cases like Schaberls or the two farmers with the dead cows are no longer the exception.
According to a study by the University of Salzburg, 46 percent of the interviewed farmers from Bavaria suffer from burnout, depression and anxiety, according to BR "quer".
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There is no simple answer, because the reasons are complex.
In addition to increasing bureaucracy and growing requirements in the area of environmental protection and animal welfare, there is also market pressure.
"Fewer and fewer farmers are cultivating larger and larger farms," is how BR "quer" sums it up.
Many farmers would also get into debt because they have to make expensive investments in machinery, land, operating resources and labour.
Farmer from Middle Franconia lets over 170 cattle starve and is on trial (video)
BR “across”: Agriculture has grown too fast
A vicious circle that the farmer Isabella Hirsch from Feuchtwangen in Central Franconia (Ansbach district) knows only too well.
When she started working as a farmer almost 30 years ago, she herself owned around 60 cattle.
That pissed her off.
"You can't work too much all the time for years," she says in retrospect in BR.
In the meantime she has switched.
She grows crops, rents holiday homes and invests in solar energy.
Isabella Hirsch from Feuchtwangen gives tips to avoid burnouts among farmers.
© Screenshot BR across
She also helps other farmers who also suffer from burnout and depression.
For them, capitalism has played a decisive part in the devastating development in their industry.
"Growing has taken on a speed and size that people just can't keep up with anymore," she explains to BR.
BR "quer": Bavarian farmers' association speaks of rethinking in the industry
But who are the culprits?
The consumers?
The trade?
Or the Bavarian Farmers' Association?
"It was an essential part of capitalism that one always goes one step further, that it always has to be improved, that it is optimized even more," says Andrea Fuss from the Bavarian Farmers' Association.
Only around the turn of the millennium would there have been a rethink.
However, the farmers themselves supported this system for a long time.
Ex-farmer Schaberl in the BR program "quer": "The farmer supported it by doing everything himself, making a few more hectares, making the machines a little bigger and practically more performs.” A principle that cannot be increased indefinitely and which for many farmers apparently ends in burnout or when they are overwhelmed.
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