Sebastian Kretschmer

One of the highlights was of course the "Witzenhausen Conference" in 2002 on the topic of the agricultural turnaround, which I organized together with a student team supervised by Holger Mittelstraß. For me, the attraction and also the lasting effect of studying ecological agricultural sciences was the total work of art that was Witzenhausen - the whole was somehow greater than the sum of its parts. A kind of sense of coherence emerged from the combination of science, landscape and the "mindset of the community". With a bit of initiative, everyone could get involved in the university context. I myself was involved in the LöLa association at the time, helping to set up a number of extra-curricular modules - from the orchard meadow course to the cosmological botany seminar. I also wrote my Bachelor's thesis on a topic that was right up my street: business start-ups in agriculture. The Diplom II thesis then contributed to the establishment of a holistic methodology for determining food quality, together with Prof. Johannes Kahl, who sadly passed away far too early in 2020.

After that, I went back to practical farming with my family. My feet had to move on, but my heart stayed here! Back in the U.S., I then spent the next ten years setting up various farm projects and at the same time tried my hand as a "secret advisor" for various institutes and NGOs. Among other things, we developed the official biodynamic apprenticeship program for North America.

From 2011 onwards, my path led me increasingly to the Global South to participate in international so-called development projects. As a consultant in the corporate social responsibility departments of two cosmetics companies, I had the opportunity to establish sustainable supply chains for botanical ingredients. At the same time, I responded to stakeholder requests to diversify the livelihoods of indigenous and agrarian communities through organic agriculture. During my later years in the US, I taught urban farming at two universities and accepted an offer from the City of Philadelphia to develop and manage a fruit and vegetable growing training farm on the campus of a large prison.

In 2018, I came full circle and joined Johannes Kahl and became part of his team in the Department of Organic Food Quality and Nutritional Culture. Here I would like to advance research into organic food systems. Since 2020, I have also had the privilege of filling a full-time teaching position for organic vegetable production at the site. An Indian proverb says: "You cannot step into the same river twice." However, this river, which I have stepped into again here, is fed uninterruptedly by an eco-spirit that is quite ingenious and "made in Witzenhausen".