TWO POSSIBLE FUTURES FOR FARMING AND FOOD

I have just visited two farms in Europe, both of which claim to demonstrate the
future of agriculture -- though they are about as different as two farms could
be.

Babolna, in northwest Hungary, covers 60,000 acres in the flat, fertile Danube
basin.  Established in 1789 by Emperor Jozsef II, Babolna became famous for its
Arabian horses, bred for show and war.  Nothing was too good for these royal
horses.  Babolna's stables look like palaces.

World War II ended the use of horses in war and brought communism to Hungary. 
Babolna became a state farm.  Instead of oats for horses, the land grew corn
and barley for chickens and pigs.  Modern methods were introduced -- chemical
fertilizers and pesticides, mass production of animals in tight confinement.

Visiting dignitaries were brought to Babolna to see the triumph of central
planning.  The farm turned out 30 million chickens a year, bred to be ready for
slaughter in 49 days.  Planes loaded with newly hatched chicks took off weekly
for Moscow.  Piglets were delivered by Caesarean section and rushed to sterile
nurseries while their mothers were turned into sausage.  Tens of thousands of
acres of corn supplied the feed mill.  (And fertilizer and pesticides
contaminated the local wells, but the visiting dignitaries couldn't see that.)

After the sudden switch to capitalism in 1990, the Hungarian government turned
Babolna into a joint stock company.  Shares will soon be offered on the market,
with the government retaining majority control.  In preparation for entry into
the European Union, Babolna's managers already comply with EU standards, which
means no hormones or antibiotics in animal feed and no genetically engineered
plants or animals.  Manure and waste from the feeding and slaughtering
operations are cooked into a pelleted fertilizer that is returned to the
fields.

Babolna now turns out 60 million chickens a year.  It employs 6500 people
directly, and thousands more indirectly and licenses its corn production system
to farms covering 1.5 million acres -- 13% of Hungary's arable land.  Babolna
provides seed, chemicals and equipment and buys back grain for its feed mills. 
It licenses chicken production the same way, providing chicks, feed, and
buildings, buying back broilers for its slaughterhouses.  Joint ventures with
Western companies include veterinary product, disinfectant, insecticide,
ventilator, and trading companies, and Babolna now provides chicken to
McDonald's for Eastern Europe's McNuggets.  Jets loaded with Babolna baby
chicks and frozen meat now head not only to Russia, but to Saudi Arabia, South
America and soon, say company planners, the whole world.

The future of agriculture according to Babolna is fast and frozen food,
produced by highly industrial methods and integrated on a global scale.  To
which Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth would react with the German equivalent of "been
there; done that."

In the 1950s, Schweisfurth's father, a local butcher, sent young Karl Ludwig to
America to see the future of meat production.  He saw it and came back to
create the biggest, most automated meat-packing enterprise in Western Europe.

Then he had an epiphany, which he attributes partly to his skeptical children,
and partly to a period of fasting and meditation.  He saw that his operation
was taking the life and health out of food.  He saw land abused, chemicals
accumulating, animals raised inhumanely, wastes piling up, long transport lines
consuming energy, and packaged, processed, adulterated foods reaching consumers
days, weeks, or months after they had been part of living plants or animals.

He sold his business and used the money to set up the Schweisfurth Foundation
in Munich, which supports organic agriculture, and Hermannsdorf, a farm to
demonstrate his vision: "food from the region for the region."

Hermannsdorf, in the rolling countryside near Munich, grows a few hundred acres
of wheat, rye, barley, maize, and hay, and 12 acres of vegetables and fruits,
all organically.  Pigs and cattle are raised in small groups in facilities that
let them go indoors or out, moving and behaving like normal animals.  Their
feed is organically raised.  Manure goes into a biogas digester that provides
roughly 20% of Hermannsdorf's heat and electricity and all the fertilizer for
the fields.

The heart of Hermannsdorf is the huge old Bavarian barn that has been
retrofitted into a processing center.  In this building is a bakery that turns
fresh-ground whole grains into wood-oven-baked sourdough breads. A
micro-brewery buys organic barley and hops from 30 neighboring farms and turns
it into an amazingly delicious beer.  A cheesery buys milk from six organic
dairy farmers and makes Parmesan, Camembert, Emmentaler, cream cheese, and
buttermilk, all without pasteurization.  (Karl Ludwig believes that high
temperatures take the life out of the milk.)  Schweisfurth's pride is the
immaculate slaughterhouse, which turns 20 hogs, 3 beef cattle, 8 calves, and 10
sheep a week into fresh meat, smoked hams, and many kinds of sausage.

This food is sold at the peak of freshness through a restaurant and store at
Hermannsdorf and eight stores in Munich.  Hermannsdorf employs about 100
people, 60 of them full time.  It turns out enough food for about 10,000
people, and Schweisfurth does not intend to make it bigger.  He doesn't believe
quality or freshness can be maintained with a larger operation.  Rather, he is
figuring out how to create a network of Hermannsdorfs, each buying organic
produce and supplying meats and cheeses and beers and breads over a distance of
no more than 20 miles in any direction.  

Pondering the contrast between Babolna and Hermannsdorf, I got on a Swissair
jet to return home and found bright sunflowers plastered over the interior
walls and a new advertising message: "The first airline serving naturally grown
food."  Starting with a few items on flights out of Switzerland, Swissair
intends to phase in organic products for all foods on all routes by April 1999.
 
(It will be a logistic tour de force, if that schedule is actually met.)

As far as I know, Swissair has no connection with Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth. 
But it has made its own choice of farming futures.  Said the sunflower-bedecked
brochure on the tray with my (excellent) lunch, "Organically produced food is
more wholesome.  It also tastes better.  And you'll feel better, knowing you've
done something good for your health and fitness."

(Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at
Dartmouth College.)

Szubjektiv velemenyem, hogy a foliaval vedett uveggel azert erdemes 
megfontoltan foglalkozni, mert 

a hovedo uvegezesnek (es foliazasnak) ket hagyomanyos alapveto 
fajtaja van. Az egyik hoelnyelo (ezert kevesebbet enged at viszont 
felmelegszik), a masik visszavero. Az elnyelo a felmelegedesebol 
kifolyolag bar a napsugarzast kevesbe engedi at, o maga viszont sugaroz 
esetenkent pokolian es befele is, tehat az elotte ulore is. A 
visszavero meg sokkal kevesebb fenyt enged at (ezert hatekony), de 
akkor meg erdemesebb kisebb ablakot alkalmazni, es/vagy egyszeruen 
arnyekolni. 

Az arnyekolasnak vannak "halaszthatatlan" elonyei. Pl.: 
szabalyozhato (kezzel vagy automatikaval). Akkor arnyekol, amikor 
szukseg van ra, igy pl. osszel (telen), tavasszal  a normal 
uvegezessel az ablak hocsapdakent, tehat honyeresegi forraskent tud 
dolgozni. A bevonat vagy folia ezt nem tudja!!!  

Vannak mar ezeknel sokkal korszerubb high-tech uvegezesek egyebkent, 
melyek vagy fenyerosseg fuggvenyeben vagy homerseklet fuggvenyeben 
sotetednek. Ezek "automatikusan szabalyozzak az atengedett fenyt es 
hoenergiat. A masodik az igazan jo megoldas mert az telen beengedi a 
hosugarzast, hiszen egyebkent hideg van, tehat nyereseget produkal.
Ezeknel a megoldasoknal azonban jelentkezik ujra az ar kerdese es 
egy-egy anyagnal azt is illene vizsgalni, hogy az eloallitasa soran 
mennyi energiat es kornyezetszennyezest igenyel / okoz.

DESI Gyula 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
DESI Gyula
Snail-mail:     1111 Budapest, Muegyetem rkp. 3. K II 27/a
T:              361 463-3947
F:              361 463-3949
> -------------------------------------------------------------------

AZ  OKOSZOLGALAT  MUNKATARSAT  KERES

Uresedes miatt egy foallasu munkatarsat keresunk, lehetoleg hosszabb tavra.

Feladat: a kornyezetvedelmi telefonos tanacsadas es a tanacsado szolgalat 
mukodtetesehez kapcsolodo feladatok ellatasa, pl.:
- adatgyujtes es -frissites,
- cikkek es palyazatok irasa,
- szereples radioban, televizioban,
- kapcsolattartas mas kornyezetvedo szervezetekkel, a sajtoval es a hivatalos
  intezmenyekkel,
- kornyezetvedelmi esemenynaptar, palyazatfigyelo, sajtofigyelo hirlevel 
  osszeallitasa.

Munkaba allas: lehetoleg azonnal, de amennyiben erre nincs mod, 1997. 
oktobere folyaman.

Elonyos, ha a jelentkezoben van:
- lelkesedes az ugy irant,
- onallo munkara valo kepesseg,
- szervezo- es targyalokeszseg,
- irodai munkara valo hajlandosag,
- beleerzokepesseg es turelem az emberekkel valo munka soran,
- nemi gyakorlat a tomegkommunikacios megjelenesben,
- felsofoku, lehetoleg szakiranyu kepzettseg
- angol, esetleg nemet nyelvtudas,
- alapfoku szamitogepkezelesi ismeretek (szovegszerkesztes, adatbaziskezeles,
  esetleg Zold Pok),
- kornyezetvedo szervezetnel szerzett tapasztalatok.

Fizetes: netto 30.000 Ft havonta

Jelentkezesi hatarido: 1997. szeptember 30.

Jelentkezes: szakmai oneletrajz mellekelesevel es az erdeklodesi terulet 
megjelolesevel az Okoszolgalatnal. Bovebb felvilagositas is itt kerheto 
(szeretettel varjuk mindazokat is, akik kivancsiak az irodaban vegzett napi
munkara).
cim: OKOSZOLGALAT 1054 Budapest, Vadasz u. 29., tel: 269-4460, 111-2200, 
tel/fax: 111-7855, drotposta: 

Diana kerdi Barnatol:

> milyen KONSTRUKTIV gondolataid vannak a  kornyezeti allapotok
> barmilyennemu javitasaval vagy megelozessel kapcsolatban?

A kornyezetvedok sokszor esnek abba a hibaba, hogy a bulvarlapok
szintjen kritizalnak egyes szennyezesforrasokat, gyakran pont
azokat, amelyek az osszes szennyezesnek mondjuk 0.1%-aert felelnek.
Celszerubb lenne a szennyezes egyharmadat kitevo szemetforrasokat
csokkenteni, nemde?

A konkret esetben (plutoniumos szonda): az inditas soran torteno
baleset eselye ("a posteriori" becsles) valahol 1 es 0.1% kozott
van. Ez tenyleg eleg sok, de a plutoniumtartalyokat valszleg
eleg jol becsomagoltak ahhoz, hogy vegzetes balesetnel se tudjanak
szetszorotni.

BTW, plutonium: erdekes lenne osszevetni az inditas soran torteno
katasztrofa soran esetleg kiszorodo plutonium mennyiseget az USAF
altal az elmult par evtizedben itt-ott elpottyantott bombakbol kikerult
plutoniummal. Az 1968 januar 22-i Thule bazisi (Gronland) balesetnel
negy H-bombabol legalabb egy (de esetleg harom is) szetszakadt es a
viharban par tizezer km2-i jegmezot teritett be plutoniummal. A
mentesen es a dekontaminalason dolgozok (reszben kornyekbeli lakok)
a pletykak szerint nem tudtak a veszelyrol es semmlyen vedofelsze-
relest nem kaptak. Es ez csak egy azokbol a balesetekbol, amit a
teljesen foloslegesen birtokolt es ide-oda hurcolaszott bombakkal
tortent.

Udv/Laci