VORWERTS

With mixed crops, agriculture can better adapt to climate change and promote more vibrant farmland with regard to insects and soil life. However, mixed cultivation has so far mostly been limited to fodder production.

In order to encourage more organic farmers to grow baker's wheat and grain legumes in mixtures, good value creation of the raw materials from the field to the bakery must be achieved. This is precisely where the project "VORWERTS - Use of organic raw materials from mixed crops in regional value chains as a real laboratory" comes in. As strong practice partners, the independent bakers and Atelier Ernährungswende are supporting the project, which is being funded with 1.09 million euros.

What makes the project special?

1. the "Reallabor" consists of seven regional organic value chains, more precisely: organic farmers, organic mills and bakeries. The baking wheat from the mixed culture will be processed and marketed in two baking campaigns during the project in order to identify challenges and potential and address them during the project period.

2. the various disciplines involved (organic crop protection, business management and agricultural and food marketing) will enable the different perspectives from agronomy to profitability and consumer acceptance to be scientifically monitored and evaluated.

But how can the added value of mixed cultivation be made visible to customers at the store counter?

This is the focus of the Agricultural and Food Marketing research group. In a first step, all practice partners in the regional chains will meet and discuss the current design of regional supply relationships as well as possible problems and solutions with regard to the project. The same will happen online with sales staff and customers of the participating bakeries.

In June 2024, all partners, including specialist retailers and consumers, will work on a joint marketing concept. This will be tested in the first year of sales - adapted to the conditions of the various bakeries - and adapted and rolled out again in the second year if necessary. Training of sales staff by the independent bakers will support the success of the marketing materials (from Feb. 2025).

Sales tests and surveys will be used to quantitatively analyze the acceptance of organic raw materials from mixed cultures in marketing (from Feb. 2025). The sales tests will be repeated in the second baking campaign for comparison (from Feb. 2026).