"Only sustainability is future-proof"

“For maybe 150 years, people have started to see growth as a prerequisite for prosperity. And since that time all prosperity has been based on exploitation, starting with the earth itself with its natural resources, the soil, the animals and finally the people. If we put sustainability above growth again, exploitation would disappear," explains partner farmer Rainer Hundmeyer, who converted his own farm - the Biohof Hundmeyer - completely to organic in 2015.

"My incentive as an organic farmer is to constantly improve the soil through my cultivation and to produce food from it that is suitable for keeping people healthy or making them healthy," the organic farmer continues .

Since beginning his training as a farmer at the end of the 1980s, Rainer has intensified his business more and more - just as he had learned during his training and it is still done conventionally to this day.

"At some point it became clear to me that everyone involved, especially agrochemicals, was earning very well from me and that I was just their henchman who also took all the criticism from society for their unscrupulous business dealings. Today I am fascinated by what nature can do if you just let it. I'm happy to be able to live off what nature (God) gives us for free."

Family relationship with Barnhouse

The family has more in common with the processors of their organic products than just a partnership. “Barnhouse, in particular, does everything it can to maintain a real family atmosphere with us suppliers. In addition to a very fair price that we get for our grain, we are repeatedly invited as guests to various events with the aim of strengthening our connection," says Rainer.

In addition to arable farming, the farm focuses on dairy farming. Rainer has cheese made from the milk of the cows, which is then sold in various farm shops together with the meat and, more recently, sausage from his pasture animals.

“When it is kept on the farm and finally slaughtered, it is important to us to see the animal as a being with feelings and fears. That's why I transport all the animals myself with the car trailer, which you already know from the willow shoots, to two butchers who treat the animals carefully and compassionately before they are slaughtered".

On a small scale, Rainer and his family - his wife Alexandra, their children and Rainer's parents - are also trying to cultivate Bergfrauenmantel for Salus/Herbaria.