Spring/Hamami/Blüte - Its at this time of the year when one of my home’s natural beauties comes into place. The vast orchards of old fruit trees bloom and fascinate with their fine white and purple flowers. IN recent years its been promoted as the swabian hamami with the emphasis to recognize the beauty but also the danger. MOre and more trees are being ut down which is atrributed to the chanegs in the farming landscape. National and european agropolicies have lead strong industrialisation of farming which forces farmers to intensify further and further. Caring for old fruit trees which are in the way when mowing the lawns is not possible as they need to be cut, the fruit collected and replaced when sick.
This policy was also designed to drive out the former model where much more small farmers were in place. My grandparents on both sides were farmers, they produced for their own living and made a little extra on the surplus goods they produced. THey planted the apple varieties they liked to eat tasty apples, bake cakes and make Most -the german cider. Today almost noone wants to do that anymore - and can’t as it is basically self-subsidized farming - food in the supermarket is way cheaper.
Interestingly the EU even subsidized to care for apple trees - getting those subsidies as an individual however is a lot of work due to the beurocratic process it involves. If we made it easier for individuals to get a decent amount which covers their costs without too much hustel we could probably encourage more people to care for some trees by making subsidies easily accessible for individuals.
On a bigger picture we should also think of how we treat our agriculture. The policy first came into place after some femines and food shortages in the last century. Since then we have a reached a vast overproduction. Even in the çatastrophic last year there was still a net export in agricultural produce from Europe. At the same time we subsidize the destruction of our natural landscape, pollute waterways, animal suffering and loss of 70% of insect mass and biodiversity. Things of which some are the most pressing issues in terms of planetary boundaries. What if we spent all that money to make farmers produce clean air and less but happier animals. They could maintain our landscape for the coming generations and take care of the soil. They plant tasteful fruit and vegetables and flowering meadows.In the end they could acutually be really proud of what they do.
