It’s about animal ethics, veganism, resource protection, climate change: The report “Milked Out!” Shows initiatives to move away from conventional livestock farming.
DARMSTADT – (sb). For farmer Matthias Obenhack from Schlitz, it no longer works: “Nothing has paid off,” he says in the report “Milked out! – Farmers are getting out of animal husbandry ”. With a return of three euros for rearing a pig, livestock farming no longer appears profitable for smaller farms. “A complete rethink is required, we have no other choice.” Obenhack’s East Hessian farm is switching to purely vegetable production.
The Darmstadt filmmakers Christian Gropper and Barbara Struif show how this works in their half-hour film on Arte (Friday, February 26th, 7.40 pm): The “Lebenstiere” association collects donations and arranges sponsorships. In this way, on the one hand, the farmer can be supported in making the switch, and on the other hand, the supply of the farm animals in retirement on “Lebenshöfen” should be secured. Such a high-yielding cow, you learn here, has to be pregnant ten or eleven times to give 100,000 liters of milk. Then after five years she would be exhausted and unprofitable, although she could be 20 years old.
The appellative character of the film is unmistakable: “Only cows are so good-natured,” complains one activist. “How sick is our economic system?” The animal rights philosopher Sarah Heiligtag from Zurich not only makes use of ethical arguments, but also refers to climate change and global nutrition. It remains to be seen whether and how the switch can succeed in the long term. In any case, it does not work here without donations, and the animal rescuers are reaching their limits and have to reject requests to save tortured creatures.
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