Katja Mahal

His approach of placing animal welfare at the forefront of animal production was very openly received there and many things were implemented directly. It is probably partly thanks to Professor Boehncke that neither the tails of pigs nor the beaks of chickens have been docked on a large scale in Finland for decades and that this is not seen as a problem. Prof. Boehne's impulses have also had a profound effect on cattle farming: Feeding continues to be grass-based, space is generous, efforts are being made to integrate grazing even when converting to loose housing, and antibiotic use is low.

Regardless of the fact that the start of the focus on organic farming was postponed year after year, the atmosphere at the Witzenhausen site was very dynamic. If it's not ready, we just have to try it out was the motto that applied to far more than the degree course. So we founded toddler groups and - as a logical consequence - toddler kindergarten groups. We discovered shared flats as a new way of living together and looked for communal forms of business. Even though I broke off my studies in 1991 to move to Finland, both my studies in Witzenhausen and what I did alongside my studies had a profound impact on me. I took with me the knowledge that organic food production was being researched and tried out with great enthusiasm in Witzenhausen and the experience that everything the world needs for a fair and healthy way of life can be created locally by a few like-minded people.

After graduating as an agricultural engineer in Finland - this time with a focus on consulting - I worked for many years as a freelance consultant and agricultural journalist. Thanks to the experience I gained in Witzenhausen, I was able to accelerate many development processes for individual farms and the entire sector like an enzyme. In addition to the university and its knowledge, I was also helped by what is constantly emerging in Witzenhausen: associations, initiatives, companies that are generously willing to share their knowledge. Sometimes it was a phone call or an e-mail, sometimes a product. The visits of Witzenhausen biogas consultant Klaus Anduschus helped to rethink biogas in Finland and to try out small biogas plants on a farm scale in difficult climatic conditions. A turning point for the interpretation of the Finnish interpretation of the EU hygiene regulation was a seminar that I organized with the help of the Association of Artisanal Meat Processing Farmers in Witzenhausen for a group of Finnish farmers, veterinarians and a representative of the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture in 2012. After the in-depth presentations by Hans-Jürgen Müller and Andrea Fink-Kessler and the farm visits to small slaughterhouses in the area, the scope for interpretation in Finland was shaped more in the interests of small farms.

The seminar was also a turning point for me. The few days, fully exposed to the special flair of Witzenhausen, did not let go of me for a long time and a voice inside me asked: When, if not now?

In April 2013, I found myself back in the lectures of the organic farming course that had been established many years ago. It was only supposed to be a short break to refresh myself, but I sat in the lectures for twelve hours a day for weeks and soaked up the utopia that had come true back then like a dry sponge. It wasn't a bit exhausting, on the contrary. I had arrived at an oasis in the desert like a traveler dying of thirst, and I fed myself. On what? I don't know exactly, it was a mystical experience. Certainly knowledge, the atmosphere, the opportunities were part of it.

Shortly before I completed my bachelor's degree in organic farming in 2016, I turned 50. I asked myself the age-appropriate question of what was missing? Shortly afterwards, I woke up and there it was: the vision of "If cows would talk", a photo exhibition that builds bridges between cows and people. It came true thanks to a Leader project and a miraculous cooperation with the Association of Agricultural Producers of Southwest Finland. I am now touring Finland and Europe with the exhibition - freelance again - and dreaming of an action at documenta 15. In November 2020, my first book in a whole series of books with pictures from the exhibition will be published. It's a children's book about everyday life on a modern dairy farm. In German, the title might be: Galopp im Kuhstall.

For me, Witzenhausen is a constant inspiration, a living inspiration. Thank you.