MORE than 30,000 socialists and environmentalists marched through Berlin at the weekend in protest at industrialised agriculture and an EU subsidy system they say favours agribusiness over sustainable farming.

More than 40 climate and environmental organisations joined farmers’ groups and consumer and animal rights activists to rail against a Common Agricultural Policy “in service of corporations” under the slogan: “We are sick of it.”

The EU’s agricultural subsidies amounted to almost €59 billion (£52bn) last year, but demonstrators say the payments are misdirected and should be deployed to “avert further farmyard closures and rural village die-off” rather than boost corporate profits. Because farmers receive subsidies per hectare, the biggest landowners get the biggest handouts.