Beets, Beats and the Fight for Better Bites – Berlin Rocks this #WHES19 Weekend

(c) Meine Landwirtschaft #WHES18

Beets, Beats and Better Bites with tasty treats, DJ tracks and dozens of tractors rumbling through the streets! What it’s the annual Wir Haben Es Satt (#WHES19) mobilization in Berlin. What’s happening – and why?

Oliver Moore in Berlin

Eating is Political – we are fed up with agro industry – Good food, climate-friendly agriculture and the preservation of farms – These are just some of the slogans for 2019’s Wir Haben es Satt rally.

Timed to coincide with Germany’s agricultural trade show, Green Week, this event draws huge numbers – tens of thousands – to the capital to protest and also to celebrate a different way to do food.

Dozens of small farmer, organic, environmental and animal welfare organisations have come together once again to support the event. There is renewed emphasis on AU ag policy – CAP the Common Agricultural Policy – and the poor choices of spending EU money – choices that support business-as-usual.

 

The demo this year emphasises the unfairness of large landowners getting the lion’s share of the money. Instead spending the German government will play a decisive role in the EU agricultural reform (GAP) by deciding which agriculture the EU will support with 60 billion euros each year.

Those who own a lot of land get a lot of money. So stop paying billions in taxes to the agricultural industry! The conversion to a more rural and ecological agriculture can no longer wait, organisers say.

Spokeswoman for the movement says:

“Minister Klöckner, now it’s delivery instead of labelling. When the billions in agricultural subsidies are redistributed in 2019 as part of the EU agricultural reform, it must be clear: not a cent more for the agricultural industry! Tax money must support farms, protect the environment and climate and keep our cattle, pigs and chickens well!”

See below for the route for Saturday’s event, Which starts just before noon Saturday 19th January.

Schnippeldisko

On tonight Friday from 6PM, this is a food party – and so much more. At this fun event, people gather to make props, listen to talks, dance and, most importantly, turn a lot of vegetables into a big big cauldron of soup for after the demo.

“Welcome to the world’s largest Disco Soup on January 18th, 2019, in Berlin! Lets heat the dancefloor and the veggies and get ready for the „We are fed up“-demonstration (Wir haben Agrarindustrie satt!-Demo) on January 19th.

Sharp knives and discussions, great beats and beets are amongst the ingredients of the most unusual disco you‘ve ever experienced. Too small, too big, too fat, too thin for the standardized wholesale and retail norms: 1500 kg vegetables from Brandenburg region‘s farmers will be waiting to be chopped and transformed into a delicious vegan soup by the „Fläming Kitchen“ Team!

Live music from the band One Drop and the best beats of Dj Party Cloudy Jr. and Katzenohr will heat the dancefloor.
Want to give your hands and feet a break? Be creative and help create costumes and banners for the demonstration, get involved in one of the many interactive Workshops or get inspired with the talks from great activists from all around europe.

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Bring along your knives, peelers, brushes, chopping boards and dancing shoes to wash, peel and cut all those knobbly vegetables and to dance through the night. You are all invited!” 

Facebook event with directions and more!

When: Friday 18.01.2019 – 18:00 until 24:00 (Program from 19:00-23:00)
Where: ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Siemensstraße 27, 10551 Berlin-Moabit

We’ve been going a long time to this fun party-  here’s what we wrote about it in 2014!

Schnippeldisko: The Disco That Fights Food Waste!

Samba for diversity

With a Samba street dance theatre, this event uses art performance and music to tell a story about diversity  – to emphasise that you can sow variety instead of simplicity on the field.

“Disguised as arable crops, flowers, insects and birds, we dance – supported by groovy samba beats – to drive away the desolation and hostility of (genetic engineering) monoculture from the field, driven by mega-seed and chemical companies such as BaySanto.”Expect costumes, dancing and an important story told about gene drives.

See event’s facebook page  and, you can get involved in ‘action tailoring’  the screen printing and sewing workshop  – at the Schnippeldisko tonight – Friday!

When: Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 12 PM – 2 PM UTC + 01
Where: Ebertstrasse 25, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Soup and Talk

soup and talk 2015

After the demo Saturday, people gather at the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation to hear about agri-food issues and inspiring initiatives from all over Germany and also further afield.

This “soup and talk” is where people consume the disco soup made at the Schnippeldisko, while talking about, or listening to, five minute presentations delivered with just five slides. 

All the details of presenters and topics are here and include our own Helene Schulze talking about our Letters from a Farm series

When: from 15.00 hrs onwards, Saturday 19th January

Where:  Heinrich Boell Foundation Schumannstrasse 8, 10117 Berlin, Germany

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About Oliver Moore 216 Articles

Dr. Oliver Moore is the communications director and editor-in-chief with ARC2020. He has a PhD in the sociology of farming and food, where he specialised in organics and direct sales. He is published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies, International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology and the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. A weekly columnist and contributor with Irish Examiner, he is a regular on Countrywide (Irish farm radio show on the national broadcaster RTE 1) and engages in other communications work around agri-food and rural issues, such as with the soil, permaculture, climate change adaptation and citizen science initiative Grow Observatory . He lectures part time in the Centre for Co-operative Studies UCC.

A propos d'Oliver Moore
Oliver voyage beaucoup moins qu’auparavant, pour ce qui concerne son activité professionnelle. Il peut néanmoins admirer par la fenêtre de son bureau les mésanges charbonnières et les corbeaux perchés au sommet du saule dans le jardin de sa maison au cœur de l’écovillage de Cloughjordan, en Irlande. L’écovillage est un site de 67 acres dans le nord du Tipperary. Il comprend d’espaces boisés, des paysages comestibles, des lieux de vie, d’habitation et de travail, ainsi qu’une ferme appartenant à la communauté. Les jours où il travaille dans le bureau du centre d’entreprise communautaire, il profite d’une vue sur les chevaux, les panneaux solaires, les toilettes sèches et les jardins familiaux. 

Ce bureau au sein de l’écovillage constitue en effet un tiers-lieu de travail accueillant également des collaborateurs des associations Cultivate et Ecolise, ainsi qu’un laboratoire de fabrication (« fab lab »). 

Oliver est membre du conseil d’administration de la ferme communautaire (pour la seconde fois !) et donne également des cours sur le Master en coopératives, agroalimentaire et développement durable à l’University College Cork. Il a une formation en sociologie rurale : son doctorat et les articles qu’il publie dans des journaux scientifiques portent sur ce domaine au sens large.

Il consacre la majorité de son temps de travail à l’ARC 2020. Il collabore avec ARC depuis 2013, date à laquelle l’Irlande a assuré la présidence de l’UE pendant six mois. C’est là qu’il a pu constater l’importance de la politique agroalimentaire et rurale grâce à sa chronique hebdomadaire sur le site d’ARC. Après six mois, il est nommé rédacteur en chef et responsable de la communication, poste qu’il occupe toujours aujourd’hui. Oliver supervise le contenu du site web et des médias sociaux, aide à définir l’orientation de l’organisation et parfois même rédige un article pour le site web. 

À l’époque où on voyageait davantage, il a eu la chance de passer du temps sous les tropiques, où il a aidé des ONG irlandaises de commerce équitable – au Ghana, au Kenya, au Mali, en Inde et au Salvador – à raconter leur histoire.

Il se peut que ces jours-là reviennent. Pour son compte Oliver continuera de préférer naviguer en Europe par bateau, puis en train. Après tout, la France n’est qu’à une nuit de navigation. En attendant, il y a toujours de nombreuses possibilités de bénévolat dans la communauté dans les campagnes du centre de l’Irlande.