"FiBL was the perfect place"

Julia De Gregorio completed a seven-month internship at FiBL Switzerland in the Department of Socioeconomics in 2014 after studying geography, and has been working for Rapunzel Naturkost GmbH since 2021, where she is responsible for the sustainability of supply chains.

After my studies, I wanted to do an internship and applied to two organisations: one of them was FiBL Switzerland. Shortly after I had applied, it became clear to me that I definitely wanted to go to FiBL. I wanted to work in research with a clear connection to organic agriculture – FiBL was the perfect place.

However, I had not yet received a response to my internship application. So, without further ado, I called Matthias Stolze, the former head of the Department of Socioeconomics (now the Department of Food System Sciences). That same week, I was on my way to Frick by bus and train, had an interview and was hired. Today I work at Rapunzel, a pioneer in the organic food industry, in the department of sustainable supply chain management. In addition to social and fair-trade standards, our team is responsible for certifications in the organic sector and serves as the point of contact for issues related to cultivation and sustainability. This means that even today, I am connected to FiBL through my work. Whether through leaflets, cultivation projects, various events or Biofach – FiBL has a presence.

In fact, at this year's Biofach, to my great delight, I met my former FiBL supervisor Bernadette Oehen again, and was reminded fondly of my internships. At the time, I was involved in the interdisciplinary EU research project "Healthy Minor Cereal", which she supervised. We analysed the market potential of rarely used cereals such as emmer wheat, einkorn wheat and oats. In addition to statistics on cultivation and cultivation areas as well as product research, I was also allowed to conduct an expert interview at the HAFL University of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences. When Bernadette came into the office one day and told me that Martin Ott, the former President of the Foundation Council of FiBL Switzerland, was there, had emmer plants with him and that I should run quickly so that I could still catch him in the car park, nothing could keep me in my chair. I actually caught up with Martin Ott in the car park and he gave me the plants that I had kept on my desk during my internship. These became the inspiration for the next step in my educational journey, which was that I wanted to see these plants on farmland. Thanks to the FiBL network I was able to do an additional internship at the plant breeding association Getreidezüchtung Peter Kunz. On their field, the rare cereals were growing for demonstration purposes as part of the research project. The combination of theoretical and practical involvement with the topic of "Healthy Minor Cereal" was an absolute highlight for me.

For the future I wish FiBL unbridled creative joy and commitment, openness, interdisciplinarity and a strong connection to practice. Above all, I hope that FiBL will continue to create opportunities for young people to get involved in organic agriculture and further their education through internships, bachelor's and master's theses, student research projects, doctoral theses, and so on. I started my work in the organic sector at FiBL and have not looked back since. Many thanks, FiBL!