A BAVARIAN farmer has provoked a media storm by putting his cows in make-shift nappies as a protest over a new EU directive which bans the use of fertilizers – such as manure – on slopes steeper than 15 degrees.
The farmer in question – Johann Huber – dressed his cows in sheets in a sarcastic ‘middle-finger’ gesture to the EU, whose new rule technically defines cow droppings as illegal. Farmers have condemned the rules, stating them to be ‘ridiculous’ and ‘impractical’.
Farmers failing to adhere to the new legislation face losing subsidies and The Telegraph reports that Brussels may be planning to take Germany to court over persistent contravention of laws banning fertilizers.
Anton Kreitmair, president of the Upper Bavaria Farming Union, said of the protest. “Slurry and dung are not pollutants, but valuable fertilizers.
“We demand that Germany stops this ban.”
