The agricultural industry is on the brink of the abyss

Dear friends, we have been seeing and feeling the abyss ever more sharply for some time now.

And (almost) everyone just looks on. Hardly anyone has the courage for sweeping, urgently needed change. Sarah Wiener: “We are on the brink of an abyss in the agricultural industry”

At the start of the plenary session of the informal Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers on Tuesday at Schloss Hof (Lower Austria), celebrity chef Sarah Wiener gave a keynote speech on “Quality of life and the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy”. Beforehand, together with Elisabeth Köstinger (ÖVP), Federal Minister for Sustainability and Tourism, she explained to the newspaper KURIER what needs to change in farming.

“The current path leads nowhere, things cannot go on like this. We are on the brink of an abyss in the agricultural industry,” says Wiener.

A system has been built, she said, in which everyone thinks products have to be as cheap as possible. Köstinger agrees: “Where should agricultural policy be heading? There is no such thing as cheap – somebody always pays the price. The value of food has to come to the fore again. At the shelf, the majority choose cheap products. But food is what we live on. That is what we need to get back to.” Wiener chimes in: “The retail trade is cutting away the farmers’ dignity. People are getting ever sicker. Children used not to have diabetes – and where do all these intolerances come from? It is connected with the way we eat, because what matters is not the taste of food but its shelf life.”

“Quality before quantity”

Köstinger’s main concern is to bring the debate back to who actually produces our food. “We have to focus on quality before quantity. That is why rural development is so important,” Köstinger continues. “During our visit on Monday to the Eisgreissler ice-cream makers in Krumbach and to Mandl’s goat farm in Lichtenegg, we saw impressively that development funding achieves positive results.”

The solution is: THE energy, mobility AND agricultural transition

But this is not happening, because it means decentralisation, no growth for those stuck in the past, completely different, enormously booming economic growth for those fit for the future – and above all falling profits for the corporations that dominate the market in every sector! They fight against it, and they could not care less about the consequences of this misguided way of doing business! Everyone pays for those consequences at a high cost, and some pay with their lives! This economic system only works because the cost of the damage is spread across everyone, while just a few pocket the profits!

The information below shows the next negative effects of this misguided free-market economy in the liberalised electricity market:

Power could be cut for hours at a time

Electricity could run short in Belgium this coming November. In some municipalities, power would then have to be switched off for hours at a time, Danielle Devogelaer of the Federal Planning Bureau told the Belgian broadcaster VRT, according to the Brussels Times. The Federal Planning Bureau is an independent Belgian authority that produces studies on economic, social and environmental issues.

The reason for the possible shortage, according to the newspaper Le Soir, is that only one of Belgium’s seven nuclear reactors will be on the grid between 20 October and 29 November. “The probability that some municipalities will be without electricity at times is increasing,” Devogelaer said. In November, demand for electricity will at times exceed supply – even if the month is not exceptionally cold. “Last November 13 gigawatts were consumed, and that month was neither particularly cold nor particularly wet. This year we will probably really have problems meeting that demand. Special measures to reduce electricity consumption will therefore be needed, above all in the evening,” Devogelaer sums up.

Le Soir assumes Belgian capacity of at most 9.3 gigawatts for November. Whether the gap could be closed through imports is uncertain. A great deal depends on the availability of French nuclear power stations. [Source: MBI/map/cdg/24.9.2018]

It is becoming ever clearer that OUR path – self-sufficiency in as many areas of life as possible, using renewable energy – is the RIGHT one! We are independent, we pay nothing for the energy from our environment, and we alone determine our costs. Anyone who looks to the future with open eyes can see that a great deal of suffering lies ahead for humanity! What is incomprehensible is that neither those responsible in politics, business, the churches or NGOs, nor even the mass of people, are doing anything about it. Only a few people are preparing for this difficult future.

PS: This electricity shortage worries neither investors, nor the power industry, nor apparently the politicians! Some are probably pleased about it. A shortage of electricity means rising electricity prices. That is exactly what investors and the power industry want! Once again, a few can make profits at the expense of the general public!