"A change of perspective is always needed"

Martin Ott was the president of the Foundation Council of FiBL Switzerland from 2007 to 2022. He was on the Foundation Council for over three decades and was also a long-standing member of the Management Board. He worked as a Demeter farmer for 40 years, during which time he helped establish the Swiss Biodynamic Training Programme, among other things. Martin Ott also worked as a musician and author, and was politically active for the Green Party at the municipal and cantonal level.

For over 30 years, I have been able to accompany, co-determine and help shape FiBL as a member of the Foundation Council, as a long-standing member of the Management Board and for 16 years as President of the Foundation Council.

Of course, in all these years I have always asked myself before making major decisions: What is FiBL's identity? What was the reason for this private initiative and are these reasons still relevant? Agriculture is very different today than it was back then. At FiBL, we have been skilful and agile in keeping  pace with the growth of the entire organic movement, and the institute has been able to grow accordingly. FiBL still generates most of its funding through projects from various donors. In addition, the private research institute now receives CHF 15 million per year from the federal government under a generous service agreement. Has FiBL adapted, softened up and become well-behaved, as some thought leaders or pioneers, especially older ones like me, are always ready to claim somewhat prematurely?

In the beginning there was the DOK trial comparing organic and conventional methods, which is still running today. This was revolutionary in 1976 and was based on the willingness to scientifically confirm or refute the practice of organic farming and its promises, hopes and experiences. This has been achieved and countless publications, some of which have made it into the most renowned scientific publications, demonstrate the advantages of organic farming.

In the meantime, however, social developments are also revealing something else. Climate change, soil loss, erosion, global nutrition, the energy crisis, etc. also demand new answers from organic farming. Organic farming needs to be developed further to meet these challenges, but what perspective does FiBL take with its researchers and studies? It is not enough to like organic farming and to oppose the specialisation in agriculture with a holistic approach. No, we need to change our perspective time and time again. A change of perspective from a human being, who acts as the sole subject in the world and takes and manipulates whatever they please, to a compassionate being among other beings. We now know that “inwardness” is not a quality that only humans can claim for themselves. Also plants, landscapes, animals, communities have it.

Everything feels! The crises of the world could be summarised under one term: It is not a crisis of knowledge, but a crisis of relationship. We have lost our relationship with living nature, also and above all in science. However, a living relationship requires an investment in a change of perspective towards another living being and not towards a dead object, a thing.

FiBL, therefore, does not have to follow the same path as conventional science, in my opinion. No, FiBL must address the big questions of agriculture as a dialogue, a relationship and, in the end, from the perspective of nature itself. Soil issues from the perspective of the soil, plant breeding issues from the perspective of the plant. It is one-sided human reasons of utilisation and manipulation that justify the advantages of the new genetic engineering.

Humans achieve their own dignity by protecting and enhancing the dignity of living beings, not by controlling, manipulating and utilising them.

It takes careful, extremely open discussions at all levels of FiBL to develop a science of relationships, always curious, ready to learn from the Ptolemaic paradox: for hundreds of years, humankind was convinced that the Earth was at the centre of the solar system. According to the Ptolemaic model, all planetary movements could be precisely calculated and predicted from the Earth and yet we were trapped in a false view of the world.

I think that the future FiBL will have to prove that humans are capable of answering the pressing questions of agriculture from the point of view of their fellow creatures. This proof will need to be strictly scientific and comprehensible to every modern person, but from a new perspective. Only then will FiBL continue to thrive and be able to maintain its justification as a private institute. Otherwise, I think, probably not.