Mareike hunter
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Organic farming in and for Switzerland
The decision to study in Witzenhausen came rather by chance. After my apprenticeship as a farmer, I looked at various options. It was probably the penchant for the unusual that ultimately led me to Witzenhausen and, of course, the focus on organic farming, which was still unique in Germany at the time.
I remember many highlights from my studies, such as the legendary lectures in organic animal husbandry by Engelhard Boehncke, the inorganic chemistry (!) by Christian Richter or the agricultural technology exam by Rüdiger Krause, which made us tremble. In addition, we had a lot of personal experiences, all of which somehow contributed to getting to know life in its whole rich facet with ups and downs and testing one or the other limit.
Mareike Jäger - Diploma I Organic Agriculture, graduated 2001.
Currently: Lecturer for Organic Farming at ZHAW Zurich, Switzerland.
Agricultural management and consulting
At the time, I majored in agricultural management because I somehow suspected that I knew very little about business administration. In fact, the basic knowledge I learned there made it much easier for me to start consulting after graduation, since 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 on arable farms, and was able to accompany many conversions to organic farming. The change from the cozy Witzenhausen to professional life I remember as rather hard, because the self-evident social togetherness of a fated community of students is not easily repeated when you are transplanted to a foreign area and the big city. In addition, I was in charge of 60% part-time farms, all of whom only had time in the evenings, in a consulting area half the size of Switzerland. After four years, I moved on to the vicinity of Zurich and, as project manager at the AGRIDEA advisory center, I was responsible for the training and further education of organic advisors and teachers. Although I already knew Switzerland a little from various summers in the Alps, I didn't plan to stay forever.
Environment and ecology
The stopover became 16 years - today I 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 organic consulting, I moved from AGRIDEA to the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Wädenswil, where I am now active in research and teaching as a lecturer myself. Much here at the university reminds me of Witzenhausen, although the studies have certainly changed radically since then. What's also different is that we train environmental engineers here, who can specialize in organic agriculture, among other things, but often also deal with interface issues. This makes it interesting, because suddenly topics open up that allow further thinking about new options for use in agriculture 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 agriculture as a whole.
In the course of my professional activities, I frequently meet graduates from Witzenhausen who enjoy an excellent reputation in the organic agricultural knowledge system here in Switzerland. Inwardly, I am always a bit happy then, because we have something special in common - a certain pride in also being a "Witzenhäuser"!