This website no longer supports Internet Explorer 11. Please use a more up-to-date browser such as Firefox, Chrome for better viewing and usability.

No April Fool's joke: It all started 50 years ago

Two men and a woman looking into the camera.

The Executive Committee of FiBL Switzerland (left to right): Dr. Jürn Sanders, Michel Keppler and Beate Huber. (Photo: FiBL, Andreas Basler)

Shot of Hardy Vogtmann being interviewed, in the background a shot of people in a field.

The beginnings of FiBL – told by Hardy Vogtmann. (Thumbnail: FiBL)

Exactly 50 years ago, on April 1st, 1974, the first FiBL employee had his first day at work. The foundations of FiBL had been laid about a year earlier, when the Swiss Foundation for the Promotion of Organic Agriculture was established on February 1st, 1973. To celebrate the end of the 50th anniversary, the new managing trio of FiBL Switzerland looks to the future – and the first FiBL Director reports on the beginnings.

FiBL celebrated its 50th anniversary with various events. At the centre of the celebrations were the farmers and all the people and institutions that have supported FiBL Switzerland since its foundation. The FiBL bicycle caravan visited some of the approximately 600 farms with which FiBL works closely: numerous organic farms and food processing companies throughout Switzerland. Following the caravan, the anniversary was celebrated with guests at the Innovation Day on the FiBL campus in Frick.

In the "Anniversary voices" series, over 30 "voices" talked about the research institute from their respective perspectives over the course of the anniversary year. To conclude the series, Jürn Sanders, Beate Huber and Michel Keppler, who head FiBL Switzerland as the Executive Committee, also share their perspectives. They report on the current situation of FiBL Switzerland, its considerable growth in recent years and their visions for the future.

Taking a look back

The video "The beginnings of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL" (in German) takes its viewers back to 1974 with Hardy Vogtmann, FiBL's first employee and director from 1974 to 1981. Among other things, he talks about the basic principle of individual responsibility with equal pay for all, how FiBL was able to avert the impending ban on the term "organic" for food, developing the first guidelines for organic farming and the beginnings of the DOK trial, which compared organic and conventional farming systems for the first time and which is still running today.

Three episodes of the podcast "FiBL Focus" (in German) were also dedicated to the 50th anniversary and the history of FiBL. The podcast team brought Hardy Vogtmann, Urs Niggli, director of FiBL Switzerland from 1990 to 2020, and the longest-serving FiBL employee Otto Schmid to the microphone. Two of the episodes were published a few months ago, and the third will be released shortly.

Further information

Contact

Links