Sonett supports organic farming In 2018, the Sonett Foundation donated a total of 37,000 Euros (approx AUD 62,000) for 3 agricultural projects:

• The “Bündnis für eine enkeltaugliche Landwirtschaft e.V” (Alliance for a type of Farming meeting our Grandchildren’s Needs).

• The approval of the purified wild-growing grass Dasypyrum as breadmaking cereal.

• The organic seed breeding and agricultural formation offered by “Zukunftsstiftung Landwirtschaft der GLS Bank Bochum” (Foundation Future for Agriculture of the GLS Bank Bochum/Germany).

The “Bündnis für eine enkeltaugliche Landwirtschaft” actively resists the widespread use of agricultural poisonous substances (pesticides). The alliance aims at committing them-selves to achieve a fundamental change in farming and food production. It’s an initiative of large organic supermarket chains and select health food producers. Sonett fully supports their issue to protect soil, water and air as essence of all things alive and participates in this project with an amount of 10,000 €.

The “Keyserlingk Institut für Saatgutforschung” (Keyserlingk Institute for Seed Science) on the Lake Constance, for more than 10 years, has been doing research on purifying wild-growing Dasypyrum villosum into breadmaking cereal. The Sonett Foundation now contributes 20,000 € towards having it approved as foodstuff in compliance with the Novel Food Regulation.

The “Zukunftstiftung Landwirtschaft” (Foundation Future for Agriculture), to a large extent, finances the organic seed research as well as agricultural formation. The Sonett Foundation makes a regular annual donation; in 2018 it amounted to 7,000 €. Info regarding the projects:

Information about the projects:

Breadmaking cereal from wild-growing grass – the project Dasypyrum villosum

More than 10 years ago, as early as 2008, the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protec-tion, pointed out in its survey on nu-trition in Germany, that more than half of the German population suf-fered from malnutrition – we starve despite a plate full of food! We do not eat enough food containing sufficient nutrients. Refining the wild-growing Dasypyrum villosum by breeding, the Keyserlingk Institute has managed to take an important step in this direction.

Dasypyrum is a species of grass, native to the Crimea, but is also to be found on Sardinia and Corsica. Botanically it is a cross between rye and wheat. Small quantities of Dasypyrum villosum are already being cultivated for experimental purposes at Camphill village community Her-mannsberg-Lichthof. For milling, a special purifying and chaffing device has been developed. Dasypyrum is very easy to bake bread with and it tastes good. Sensory tests and observations, using the research on formative forces, demonstrated a concentration of light forces going hand in hand with a forceful bond with earth.

The next important step is now to obtain approval as foodstuff in compliance with the Novel Food Regulation. This would make Dasypyrum, with its excellent baking and nutrition properties, available for anyone to use as foodstuff in bread, noodles, pastry and more.

The necessary tests for this project are estimated to cost approx. 95,000 €. To date financial commitments have been made by the “Förderstiftung der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft in Deutschland” (“Foundation of the Anthroposophic Society in Germany”) and the Mahle Foun-dation. The Sonett Foundation has promised the contribution of 20,000 Euros.

Alliance for a type of Farming meeting our Grandchildren’s Needs

“Bündnis für eine enkeltaugliche Landwirtschaft e.V.” (Alliance for a type of Farming meeting our Grandchildren’s Needs) The alliance, founded in 2018, actively resists the uncontrollable widespread use of pesticides. In rural as well as in urban areas (e. g. in the English Garden in Munich/Germany) agricultural poisonous substances are spreading in detectable quantities, which are constantly being inhaled, drunk and eaten with one’s food. On account of this, they threaten to destroy humans, soil and environment. As early as in the study “Urinals 2015” the dramatic extent of the poisoning could be proved. A test with more than 2000 test people verified the pesticide Glyphosate in 99.6 % of the urine samples, in fact with a concentration 40 times higher than that of the maximum level allowed for drinking water!

If poisonous substances are spreading extensively to such a degree, the much-invoked co-existence between ecologically sensible cultivation (organic) and industrial (conventional) agriculture is no longer feasible, as the Alliance points out. Hence, ecological farming and organic food industry are massively endangered if not totally rendered impossible in future.

The Alliance’s aim is to, first of all, research the extent of the exposure of humans, fauna and flora to the widespread use of industrial pesticides in Germany and to scientifically evidence it. The Alliance’s intention is furthermore to elaborate a concrete scheme as to how a type of farming meeting our grandchildren’s needs can materialize. Its basis is meant to initiate a dialogue inviting all important agricultural actors to contribute their own ideas and good-will for changes. The Alliance makes it quite clear that only if the organic sector speaks with one voice, will it be possible to induce the necessary change in agro-politics. Sonett contributes 10,000 €. To this end, money from Sonett sales will be channelled into this contribution up to the respective amount. This will be carried out in 2019 in a two-month campaign, in order to reach the general public and customers of the organic food trade and induce their support.

“GLS Treuhand” (GLS Trust) – “Zukunftsstiftung Landwirtschaft” (Foundation Future for Agriculture)

Development of seeds

The seeds fund of the “Zukunftsstiftung Landwirtschaft der Gemeinnützigen Treuhandstelle der GLS Bank-Bochum” supports initiatives that commit their efforts to research and development of species of vegetables, cereals and fruit which are organic and without genetical engineering. It is their aim to establish independent plant breeding for organic farming – free from genetic engineering, patents and monopolies! Our regular financial contribution of 3,000 € each year demonstrates the importance to Sonett to contribute towards ecological seed breeding without genetic engineering.

Educational Fund Agriculture In 2018, the Sonett Foundation, with an amount of 4,000 €, furthermore supported young people that, with verve, commit themselves to sustainable farming. The educational fund supports initiatives, inter alia, that enable children to experience a wider range of farming, or offer an alternative formation to young adolescents in order for them to be able to participate in designing the future with their ecological and economical skills, knowledge and enjoyment.

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