Mareike Jäger

At the time, I majored in agricultural management as I somehow suspected that I knew very little about business administration. In fact, the basic knowledge I acquired there made it much easier for me to start working as a consultant after graduating, as I was constantly confronted with business management issues.

After my studies, I moved to Bavaria for a few years, where I worked as a consultant for the BIOLAND Association, mainly looking after arable farms and was able to accompany many conversions to organic farming. I remember the change from cozy Witzenhausen to working life as rather hard, because the natural social interaction of a community of students does not simply repeat itself when you are transplanted to a foreign region and a big city. In addition, I was responsible for 60% of part-time farms, all of which only had time in the evenings in an advisory area half the size of Switzerland. After four years, I moved on to the Zurich area and worked as a project manager at the AGRIDEA advisory center, where I was responsible for the training and further education of organic advisors and teachers. Although I already knew a little about Switzerland from various Alpine summers, I didn't plan to stay forever.

The stopover turned into 16 years - I now live with my husband and two sons in the "Züri Oberland", between Winterthur and Rapperswil. In 2019, after almost 20 years in the field of bioconsulting, I moved from AGRIDEA to the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Wädenswil, where I now work as a lecturer in research and teaching. A lot of things here at the university remind me of Witzenhausen, although the course has certainly changed radically since then. What is also different is that we train environmental engineers here, who can specialize in organic farming, among other things, but often also deal with interface issues. This makes it interesting, because suddenly topics are opening up that allow us to think about new options for agricultural use that go beyond pure production. These are, for example, topics related to agriculture and eco-technologies or energy production, which can certainly also contribute to the further development of organic farming as a whole.

In the course of my professional work, I often meet graduates from Witzenhausen, who enjoy an excellent reputation in the organic farming knowledge system here in Switzerland. I always feel a little happy inside, because we have something special in common - a certain pride in being a "Witzenhäuser" too!