Paper short abstract:

Since the 1950s slatted floor stables replaced solid manure stalls. Largely negative attitudes towards slurry alternated with short phases of consent. Using topic modeling, we analyzed German newspapers from 1971 to 2020 and found five themes ranging from negative to positive reporting on slurry.

Paper long abstract:

The intensification and expansion of livestock farming in Europe since the 1950s led to the introduction of slatted floor housing systems, which made bedding material obsolete and caused a switch from farmyard manure to slurry.

As livestock numbers increased, there was an increasing mismatch between the amount of slurry and the fertilizer requirements of farm fields, and, manure went from being a valuable organic fertilizer to a waste product that had to be disposed of. In the 1950s/60s the significant increase in demand for livestock products, in the 2000s the German government’s commitment to an energy transition and, since 2020, the German bioeconomy strategy which identifies agricultural waste and residuals as potential products in a circular economy, helped to raise the value of slurry.

In our contribution we aim to elucidate the public debate and representations of slurry. Using topic modeling, we analyzed more than 2,000 digitally available articles from four leading German newspapers from the years 1971 to 2020.

We identified five themes that are representative of different public discourses and their development over time. Coverage of the (i) structural change, (ii) non-sustainability and (iii) governance themes tended to be problem-oriented and the representation of slurry was negative. The (iv) techno- and bioeconomy theme presented slurry in a positive way as a by-product of agricultural production that can either be controlled or even used for economic benefit. Finally, the (v) rural idyll theme reflects a romanticized vision of agriculture in which slurry is a rather unpleasant but indispensable feature.