Dr. Beate Formowitz
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From research to agricultural extension education
Dr. Beate Formowitz - Diploma I Organic Agriculture and MSc International Ecological Agriculture, graduated 2005.
Currently: Head of Education at the State Office for Agriculture in Hesse, Rauischholzhausen.
Born and raised in Hanover, my love of nature was instilled in me at an early age by my grandmother and parents and their love of our allotment garden. However, after I managed to dry out even the most drought-tolerant epiphytes in my teenage years, it was almost daring to start training as an ornamental plant gardener at the Berggarten Hannover, botanical garden of the Herrenhäusergärten. But apparently some things stuck, because since then I have a green thumb, which pleases not only my neighbors, but currently also the insect world of Marburg.
When I worked for another year at the Parks Department in Hanover after my apprenticeship and worked in the field clearing the urban greenery of garbage, maintaining green corridors and playgrounds, I could never have imagined that I would one day "end up" as a manager at the Landesbetrieb Landwirtschaft Hessen (LLH) in the Rauischholzhausen educational seminar and be allowed to work in a castle.
Lively study time and international internships
Fortunately, I took the first - at that time still unconscious - step in this direction when I started to study organic agriculture in the winter semester 1999/2000 in Witzenhausen. There would be so much to tell about the following years of study and doctoral studies that I don't even know where to begin and end. I could tell you about my wonderful time in the Hanseaten-WG, the common ups and downs of studying and partying, the legendary wet and merry parties in the club, the encounters with so many unbelievably great, committed and loving people at home and abroad, or my professional focus, the plant cultivation of the tropics and subtropics and soil biology.
Unforgettable are my internship stays, among others, in Portugal on an ostrich farm in the Alentejo and my later stay in Costa Rica. After arriving in Portugal with the offer that we could also sleep in a tent, we were delighted that our Dutch neighbor fulfilled the cliché of owning a caravan, which we were allowed to borrow and use as accommodation. It was a great time and we learned a lot about artificial breeding, ostrich rearing and real teamwork. The latter, among other things, in order not to be "kicked to death" when taking away the eggs. Quite unexpectedly, several small puppies were "placed in our laps" on the farm, which we raised with the bottle and never gave away again. Little Beleza became my faithful companion for 11 years until I had to let her go over the Rainbow Bridge and I still miss her today.
A bit naive and without any knowledge of Spanish, I plunged into the adventure of Costa Rica. Just the journey with the container ship across the Atlantic, thanks to the great support of Dole Europe, was an amazing experience, which I more than enjoyed after the first three days seasick below deck. All the impressions like flying fish, whales and the incredible sea of stars in the night sky compensated for everything. In addition to the experiments on Effective Microorganisms and Bokashi, I explored this beautiful and diverse country in the following seven months and got to know and love the joie de vivre of the Latin Americans and the Spanish language.
Work with and connect with people
In 2008, I was once again looking for a new challenge, and so I came to the Technology and Support Center in Straubing in beautiful Lower Bavaria. And "here I was, here I came", from the first day on, everything fit, the people, the region, the tasks, the coziness... "everything is just right". In addition to projects on energy crop cultivation, I had the great fortune to work on a project with philosophers on the social debate about bioenergy. It was exciting to see how the initially very different ways of working of us natural scientists and humanities scholars converged more and more in the course of the project, of course not without endless discussions about report structures, formulations and their meanings.
Since mid-2014, I have been back in Hesse, but in a completely different field of activity. Leaving research behind me, the focus is now on supporting extension workers in rural areas as well as employees in agricultural administration through our professional and methodological training courses at the LLH Educational Seminar Rauischholzhausen. New tasks require new methodological and personal competencies and so I attended the Master Mediation as well as various advanced trainings on communication, relationship building, leadership and the like. I truly feel privileged to be able to work in a beautiful castle and in this professional field and to constantly learn and develop with each seminar and in exchange with the participants, the clients and also my team.
As a person with a high degree of closeness, in the sense of Riemann-Thomann, the connection to the people around me is one of the most important things in life. Over the years, wonderful friendships have developed, which have not been broken even by relocations and long distances. Some of them have their origin in Witzenhausen and I hope they will last for a very long time.
Comment
Inka Sachse: Thank you for this wonderful, lively and organic report! I look forward to hopefully seeing you again soon.