The demand for organ­i­cal­ly pro­duced food in Ger­many, also in the met­ro­pol­i­tan area of Berlin, is grow­ing steadi­ly. Food pro­duc­tion in Ger­many, espe­cial­ly in Bran­den­burg, can­not keep pace with this fore­see­able devel­op­ment. Often demand and demand can no longer be met today or have to be sat­is­fied with organ­ic prod­ucts from abroad.

Organ­ic agri­cul­ture offers a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty for rur­al Bran­den­burg in par­tic­u­lar, as far more work­ers are employed there than in con­ven­tion­al agri­cul­ture. Like most oth­er fed­er­al states, the state of Bran­den­burg has final­ly resumed fund­ing for organ­ic farm­ing. The frame­work con­di­tions are there­fore favor­able for organ­ic farming.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, despite a 15-year com­mit­ment by the Asso­ci­a­tion of Friends of the Ger­­man-Pol­ish Euro­pean Nation­al Park Unteres Oder­tal e. V. so far not a sin­gle rec­og­nized organ­ic farm. That needs to change. Under the label “nat­ur­al prod­ucts from the nation­al park region” there is a unique mar­ket­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty in the greater Berlin area that should def­i­nite­ly be used. We want to encour­age such a devel­op­ment. The local farm­ers and busi­ness­es have to do the busi­ness them­selves. The pub­lic sec­tor should pro­vide start-up fund­ing for the pro­cess­ing and refine­ment of organ­ic food.

The Nation­al Park Foun­da­tion wants to sup­port local farm­ers on this path towards eco­log­i­cal agri­cul­ture. For exam­ple, on March 23, 2007 at 2:00 p.m., two rep­re­sen­ta­tives of organ­ic agri­cul­ture are invit­ed to Criewen Cas­tle to pro­vide infor­ma­tion and advice on ques­tions of organ­ic agri­cul­ture. Inter­est­ed jour­nal­ists are also wel­come to take part on request. We hope for sus­tain­able impulses.

Dr. Ans­gar Vössing