Berlin's Green Week, which took place in the German capital from 11th to 18th January, saw food and farming industry groups staging trade events and meetings between international policy makers, in what has become the world's largest agricultural fair.

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Protesters and public awareness groups marked the week with a now traditional demonstration, calling for a shift towards more socially and environmentally sound food production. Uniting under the slogan "we are fed up" 25,000 protestors demanded better animal welfare, more environmentally conscious farming, measures to support smaller farms and announced their rejection of GM technology.

Although a number of genetically modified crops are licensed to be imported into the EU, the only variety authorised for cultivation is banned in Germany.

Protestors also spoke out against food scandals, as carcinogenic dioxin compounds have again been discovered in animal feed in the country; the discovery is the latest in a line of such contaminations over the past year in Germany. In 2011, nearly 5,000 farms were closed temporarily as the result of a far-reaching food scare over contaminated feed produced by German manufacturers Harles and Jentzsch.

Chancellor Merkel pledged to tighten feed regulations yet again in response to the latest scandal in her speech earlier in the week.

Farmers, animal rights activists and more mainstream environmental campaigners, including those from Friends of the Earth, marched from the Central train station through the government district, following around 50 tractors. They urged the German government not to put the interests of industry first, but to uphold those of consumers.

In a speech delivered to the chancellor's office at the end of the protest, Hubert Weiger of German environment group BUND said, "Hopefully, Chancellor Merkel won't restrict her tour of Green Week to the Potemkin villages that the agricultural industry has erected. New guidelines for agricultural policy in Germany and the European Union are long overdue. The federal government, with Chancellor Merkel and Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner, has to finally ensure that small farms are encouraged instead of factory farms."

This year's protests also coincided loosely with the French and German governments, including their agriculture ministers, meeting to mark the 50th anniversary of the Elysée Pact, the treaty that ended hostilities after World War Two, the delivery of CAP reform proposals by the European Parliament Agriculture Committee and world agriculture ministers meeting at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture.