Corn used for biofuel is taking over vast stretches of traditional grazing land in Germany. The change is transforming the landscape, driving shepherds out of business and threatening the dike system crucial for preventing floods.
"I know all my girls," says Jenny Kniestedt, "and when I drive up in my car, they know that mama has arrived."
The 31-year-old Berlin native cares for 350 ewes on a dike where the Löcknitz River flows into the Elbe River, near Dömitz in the northeastern German region of Mecklenburg. Kniestedt, a trained shepherd with short black hair and a tattoo on her upper arm, pushes her charges into a sorting pen, where they'll receive an injection against external parasites in their "wool-covered butt cheeks," followed by the oral administration of a drug against tapeworms.
See full Article: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/corn-for-biofuel-threatens-livelihood-of-shepherds-in-germany-a-848903.html.
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