Bioforum Switzerland
The Bioforum Switzerland is a Swiss association from agriculture . It was founded in the 1920s and is one of the origins of organic farming .
founding
- see also article → Young farmers' movement
In Grosshöchstetten , between the federal city of Bern and the Emmental , the “Swiss Central Office for Rural Youth, Cultural and Welfare Work” was established in the 1920s. This became known nationwide as the Swiss Farmer's Home Movement, also known as the Young Farmer Movement . With support from all over the country, an educational center was built that shaped the time when organic farming was developed in continental Europe . The lectures, courses and training offers of the Bauernheimatschule and Hausmutterschule Möschberg have been supplemented by a mail order library with around 3,000 volumes. Several hundred local farming education groups have been initiated and supported in the regions of Switzerland. All of this was a unique educational campaign for the rural population at the time.
The biology and secondary school teacher Hans Müller and his wife Maria Müller-Bigler ran the school. Organic farming and wholefood nutrition were already part of the curriculum in the first year of operation .
Political commitment
In 1929, Hans Müller was elected to the Swiss National Council for the farmers, trade and citizens' party . Because of differing views on the measures necessary to combat the economic crisis , in particular his cooperation with the trade unions, Hans Müller and the “young farmers” were excluded from the BGB in 1935. From then on, the young farmers formed their own parliamentary groups in the Grand Council of the Canton of Bern and in the parliaments of several other cantons as well as in the federal parliament. They were committed to peasant land rights and modern old-age insurance, but were politically more and more isolated and ultimately marginalized.
Origin of organic farming (continental Europe)
In 1951, the German doctor Hans-Peter Rusch (1906–1977) published an essay on The Law of the Circulation and Conservation of Living Substance and shortly afterwards came into contact with the “Möschbergers” in Switzerland. This encounter gave rise to the solid theoretical foundation of agriculture, which from then on was referred to as organic-biological and developed independently from biodynamic agriculture , from which it had taken up ideas as well as from the initiators of the life reform . The German and Austrian organic movement have their roots on the Möschberg.
Development of marketing structures
In 1946, Hans Müller ended his political activity (“Politics cannot help farmers”) and concentrated entirely on the further development and spread of organic farming. The focus was on helping the individual farms and helping the farms to protect themselves from the increasing chemicalization of agriculture. In the same year he founded the journal Kultur und Politik and today's Bio-Gemüse AVG Galmiz as the publication organ . This opened up their own market for the organic farming families from the very beginning and made organically grown food available to the non-farming population. In 1972, Hans Müller's pupils founded the Biofarm Cooperative in Kleindietwil as a further marketing channel.
The Möschberg achieved a peak of international appeal in the 1960s and 1970s thanks to the extensive lecture activities of the Müller couple and the courses with international participants. The first organic-organic farming associations in Germany and Austria, Bioland and Bio Austria , have their roots on the Möschberg.
Realignment
With the Research Institute for Organic Farming FiBL and Bio Suisse , new organic farming centers were established in Switzerland from the 1970s. After Hans Müller's death, the association was renamed from “Bauernheimatbewegung” in 1996 to “Bioforum Möschberg” and in 2004 to “Bioforum Switzerland”. In 1989 the education center was rebuilt and continued as an open seminar house with organic cuisine ( seminar and culture hotel Möschberg ).
Today the association has around 400 members. This includes farmers and many others who are interested and committed to organic farming and a sustainable way of life . Interdisciplinary , as the founding parents of organic farming in continental Europe were in their educational center on the Möschberg, is the successor organization "Bioforum" to this day. A broad-based advisory board supports the board in implementing its goals.
The Möschberg Talks on fundamental topics relating to agriculture and nutrition take place once or twice a year, as well as the organic summit in summer .
"Culture and Politics" magazine
In its 64th year, the association publishes the magazine Kultur und Politik , which is read by farmers and non-farmers. There, questions about soil culture , farming attitudes and sustainable management, food sovereignty and the associated food quality will find well-founded answers regardless of guidelines and mechanisms of major market policy, such as those that can be effective in associations.
Web links
- Website of the Bioforum Switzerland
- “Culture and Politics” magazine ( Memento from May 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) on the Bioforum Switzerland website
Individual evidence
- ↑ AV AG GALMITZ
- ↑ BIOFARM ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Seminar and culture hotel Möschberg
- ↑ Möschberg Talks
- ↑ Biogipfel
