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SEKEM‘s Journal for Culture, Economy, Society and Ecology in Egypt Insight Nr. 125 - Februar 2013 SEKEM Insight | Februar 2013 | Page 1 Dear Readers, Demeter agriculture is virtually the lifeblood SEKEM, the fun- damental principle on which its development work is built, as far as its engagement with the natu- ral environment is concerned. It also deeply affects the care and management of its relations to its employees. Hardly any other approach is of more crucial signif- icance to the ethical and material importance of its work not only in Egypt, but also internationally. SEKEM Insight has highlighted individual aspects of Demeter agriculture in Egypt in several of its previous issues. In this edition, we comprehensively consider the interaction of these elements in an article on the practice of bio- dynamic cultivation in the country. In a future issue, we will look more closely at the material basis of the approach. The SEKEM team is delighted that another pioneer of biodynamic agriculture - long-term SEKEM partner and customer Lebens- baum from Germany - has recently won the distinction “Product of the Year” for another leading product of the global sustainable and fair trade movement: coffee. Congratulations! Editorial Your Team of Editors The Practice of Demeter Agriculture in Egypt The focus of the foundation for successful development SEKEM’s work is the bio-dynamic agriculture. On the initiative and they more and more farmers in Egypt trust for more than 30 years. In a series of articles, we look at the specifics of the Demeter cultivation in Egypt. Demeter Bio-dynamic Practice in Egypt DUNDU Art and Human Encounters Partner News Lebensbaum Wins Demeter Prize Find SEKEM also on the Internet at: A white house with red roof tiles, geraniums on the windowsills, next to a barn, a cow peeps out of its window and a cock crows on the dung heap beside, surrounded by his flock of hens, pecking. The whole idyllic scene is located right next to a veg- etable garden, green hills and yel- low-waving corn fields. Is that not a perfect representation of our imagina- tion of a Demeter farm somewhere in lush, green Europe? And is it not hard to imagine a similar scene in Egypt, a country virtually without rain, with vast deserts, and almost without any cows or cattle? Interestingly, the reality can be quite different. In Egypt SEKEM is work- ing in most of the country’s regions together with many farmers to pro- duce large quantities of organic food according to the Demeter guidelines. Even though the sights and sounds of Egypt might differ a bit from those of Though SEKEM also cultivates raw materials itself at numerous large farms all over Egypt, its companies traditionally work with many small-holding farmers such as this family from Fayoum.
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Page 1: SEKEM Insight 02.13 EN

SEKEM‘s Journal for Culture, Economy, Society and Ecology in Egypt

InsightNr. 125 - Februar 2013

SEKEM Insight | Februar 2013 | Page 1

Dear Readers,

Demeter agriculture is virtually the lifeblood SEKEM, the fun-damental principle on which its development work is built, as far as its engagement with the natu-ral environment is concerned. It also deeply affects the care and management of its relations to its employees. Hardly any other approach is of more crucial signif-icance to the ethical and material importance of its work not only in Egypt, but also internationally.

SEKEM Insight has highlighted individual aspects of Demeter agriculture in Egypt in several of its previous issues. In this edition, we comprehensively consider the interaction of these elements in an article on the practice of bio-dynamic cultivation in the country. In a future issue, we will look more closely at the material basis of the approach.

The SEKEM team is delighted that another pioneer of biodynamic agriculture - long-term SEKEM partner and customer Lebens-baum from Germany - has recently won the distinction “Product of the Year” for another leading product of the global sustainable and fair trade movement: coffee. Congratulations!

Editorial

Your Team of Editors

The Practice of Demeter Agriculture in Egypt

The focus of the foundation for successful development SEKEM’s work is the bio-dynamic agriculture. On the initiative and they more and more farmers in Egypt trust for more than 30 years. In a series of articles, we look at the specifics of the Demeter cultivation in Egypt.

DemeterBio-dynamic Practice in Egypt

DUNDUArt and Human Encounters

Partner NewsLebensbaum Wins Demeter Prize

Find SEKEM also on the Internet at:

A white house with red roof tiles, geraniums on the windowsills,

next to a barn, a cow peeps out of its

window and a cock crows on the dung

heap beside, surrounded by his flock

of hens, pecking. The whole idyllic

scene is located right next to a veg-

etable garden, green hills and yel-

low-waving corn fields. Is that not a

perfect representation of our imagina-

tion of a Demeter farm somewhere in

lush, green Europe? And is it not hard

to imagine a similar scene in Egypt, a country virtually without rain, with vast deserts, and almost without any cows or cattle?

Interestingly, the reality can be quite different. In Egypt SEKEM is work-ing in most of the country’s regions together with many farmers to pro-duce large quantities of organic food according to the Demeter guidelines. Even though the sights and sounds of Egypt might differ a bit from those of

Though SEKEM also cultivates raw materials itself at numerous large farms all over Egypt, its companies traditionally work with many small-holding farmers such as this family from Fayoum.

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SEKEM Insight | Februar 2013 | Page 2

Economy

fertile Europe, many of these products grown here are produced under simi-lar circumstances and will later be pro-cessed into foods, teas, medicines and textiles by the many companies of the SEKEM Group.

Among each other, these farms - ranging from small-holding farmers’ places to larger plantations - can seem very different: from tiny rural set-tlements in the Nile Delta, that have access to only 1-2 hectares, but boast dark, fertile soil and irrigation through the channels that zigzag the Delta in most places, to large farms with hun-dreds of hectares all of them form part of the wider SEKEM community of sup-pliers and co-workers. Some farms are located in the oases of the Western Desert, where date palms are grown traditionally and herbs and spices. Here the soil is poor and sandy, and dependent on irrigation from ground-water of the oases. Other farms are located in the southern region of the country, right in the narrow strip of fertile soil left and right of the river Nile itself, such as the area of the towns of Minya, Sohag, and Beni Suef. Here, many different varieties of food plants can be grown, albeit in a very confined space, as soil fertility has

been improved for thousands of years through the mud of the Nile that has been deposited here during each of the annual flooding cycles. Today, the quality of these soils must be actively preserved by the farmers themselves, as no flooding occurs anymore due to the impact of the Aswan Dam built between 1960-1970.

As different as these farms may seem, they all bear some typical “Demeter characteristics”, but often exhibit them in many different ways:

Improving Soil Fertility

On the SEKEM farm, cultivation according to biodynamic principles began more than 30 years ago. During the implementation of the basic foun-dations of Demeter agriculture in the Egyptian desert, Dr. Abouleish and his team were support and inspired by many experts. Frieda Gögler and Georg Merckens, for example, man-aged to transfer their decades of expe-rience with bio-dynamic farming in Europe to the new circumstances in an arid country like Egypt and went on to share their enthusiasm with the early SEKEM co-workers. Based on the suc-cesses achieved on the seminal SEKEM

Farm, many more farmers joined or expressed interest in learning more about the new technique. They were all naturally interested in a method that would allow them to reclaim desert ground, turn it into arable land, and to manage it in such a way that it would yield healthy food and contrib-ute to creating sustainable livelihoods for their families and their children in a profitable way.

The basis of the agricultural work and the motivation of the farmers may be quite different in many of these locations, as it is on conven-tional farms. Of course, Demeter farm-ers also have to earn enough income to provide for themselves and their families. However, the motivational core for many is the service they may provide to the wellbeing of the earth itself. On the Demeter farms, soil fer-tility is improved through the use of specially prepared compost and by the balanced employment of crop rotation on the individual fields. For the com-post, vegetable scraps (green waste) from the farm itself as well as ani-mal manure from its own animals are used. In addition, the compost used is further refined through bio-dynamic preparations is that are used by all Demeter farmers.

The compost is usually brought onto the fields twice a year, during the prep-aration season. The fields are then immediately ploughed.

The desert soils in and around SEKEM are slightly alkaline with very low carbon and very high salt levels. Their treatment with compost, green manure, bio-dynamic preparations, and regular irrigation has, over time, led to a change in the composition of the soil and its improvement with higher levels of organic matter.

In a study by Soil & More International, the Louis Bolk Institute and the Heliopolis University, the researchers Joris van der Kamp and Boki Luske could compare the effects of many years of bio-dynamic farming on Egyptian desert soils with cultiva-tion on un-prepared, conventionally tilled soils, specifically concerning the

More than 30 years of Demeter agriculture bear fruit in the soils of the original SEKEM Farm. Through compost application the sandy ground has gained so much in quality that it can be used for regular agriculture.

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Economy

organic carbon content contained in different soil layers. The results show a strong increase of organic carbon in layers of up to 30cm deep. In the pristine desert soil around SEKEM, an organic carbon content of 0,06 to 0,08% was measured. On soils that had been farmed for 30 years by SEKEM, the organic carbon content in a depth of 0-10cm had increased to levels between 0.99 to 1.39% and in 10-30cm depth to levels between 0.32 and 0.39%. Per hectare per year, on average 3 tons of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases are sequestered and thus a major contribution to cli-mate protection is made.

The higher organic matter content in the soil also leads to a lower need for continuous irrigation and a generally better soil fertility - important factors for improving food security in a water-scarce country like Egypt.

The Application of Preparations and the Observation of Cosmic Rhythms

On the fields, bio-dynamic prepa-rations are used in a comprehensive fashion, namely horn manure and horn silica. In addition, the farmers aim to orient their cultivation practice to cos-mic rhythms, for instance concerning the exact timing of the employment of preparations, during planting, fer-tilizing, and even soil preparation. They rely on the calendar authored by Maria Thun, a German bio-dynamic author specialising in farming calen-dars. EBDA, the Egyptian Biodynamic Association, has conducted a num-ber of field trials in recent years that could confirm the effectiveness of the use of treatments and the observance of cosmic rhythms. The trails provided impressive insights and confirmed rising yields and the better quality of clover plants, potatoes and cotton. SEKEM’s farmers have been encour-aged in their work very much (see also SEKEM Insight No. 30, 11.2004). Observing the suggested days for

sowing and the three-time applica-tion of horn silica, the cotton harvest improved by almost 20% (weight) compared to cotton which was grown on the same field but had remained untreated and whose farmers did not observe cosmic rhythms.

Since then, similar tests have been run under the direction of the EBDA because through the initial study and later regular work, lots of new ques-tions arose, such as regarding the qual-ity of the preparations themselves. In Egypt, the same treatments are man-ufactured and used as in Europe. Even though legitimate questions have been posed concerning the need for different types of preparations to be used in different climates, the good results obtained through their applica-tion do not suggest a need for special manufacturing methods.

Animal Husbandry

All Demeter farms engage in animal husbandry, except for the occasional facility focussing on horticulture alone. In Egypt, these animals are often traditional sheep or water buf-falos. Pigs are not kept while cattle is rare. Chickens, pigeons, ducks, and geese are also found on many farms. Some dispose of camels or donkeys as animals used in labour or they main-tain beehives.

On the SEKEM farm itself, 230 dairy cows are kept in stables. To these have to be added some calves, heifers and some fattening animals that are home-bred. A flock of sheep, many chickens and a few donkeys and camels also populate the farm. SEKEM even culti-vates bees. The large number of ani-mals on the farm is justified (and even necessary) by the fact that the SEKEM Farm is in an operating community with SEKEM’s neighbouring Adleya farm. Here, herbs, fruits and vege-tables are grown, which are depend-ent on the compost produced with the manure of animals kept by SEKEM.

Since the beginning of the agri-cultural work on the farm, Angela Hofmann has been responsible for

animal husbandry and breeding. She also strives share with SEKEM’s co-workers a whole new attitude towards animals in the context of the farm, which is marked by dignity and respect for their nature. Again and again she has experienced the challenge of changing the image of animals in a society used to look at them in the first place as tool for labour or as a provider of meat.

However, by visiting the SEKEM farm or any other Demeter farm and by care-fully observing the animals and their relationship to humans, visitors can get a first glimpse of what constitutes the individuality of each farm and its specific bio-dynamic spirit.

Thus, in Egypt in recent years, a strong Demeter movement has emerged. On the one hand, recent suc-cesses are entirely material and are reflected in the many healthy foods that are sold mostly in Egypt, and in the farms, whose soils are farmed bio-dynamically and whose fertil-ity is constantly improving. On top of that, however, it has to be consid-ered an important success for the whole of Egypt that precisely because of the example SEKEM originally set for bio-dynamic cotton production, the spraying of pesticides by air has been abandoned long ago and that the overall use of pesticides in Egypt dropped by nearly 90%. The power of the Demeter movement is also visible in individual encouragement that cre-ates a healthier culture of farming. It is a culture that continues to understand the practice of farming as a continuous grappling new ideas and questions and not to resort to simple (chemical) “One-size-fits-all” approaches.

At present, Demeter farmers in Egypt are working hard on issues of soil quality: what is their quality? How do roots develop in sandy ground? What does our treating it do to it? How is the soil compacted by working with heavy tractors? What plants can I grow that help the soil regenerate? Egypt’s Demeter movement is all about never stopping to ask radical questions

Christina Anlauf, Angela Hofmann

You can visit SEKEM yourself:www.SEKEM-reisen.de www.aventerra.de

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Economy

The Business Development of theSEKEM Group Companies in 2012

Turnover (consolidated)

2011

2012

209 Mio. EGP

260 Mio. EGP

Sales Shares (by category)

20% 15% 15% 50%

Farming Pharma Textiles FMCG

Sales Shares (Domestic vs. Export)2011

Local

Export

2012

Local

Export

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SEKEM Insight | Februar 2013 | Page 5

Impressions from SEKEM

D UNDU („You And You“) is a 5m long puppet that has the power to engage people in an interactive and playful interaction wherever it appears. Interacting with DUNDU, you may easily forget time and space because everyone is immediately fascinated by its charisma that speaks to souls anywhere in

the world, and warms the heart of everyone by calling to life one’s „inner child“. With artistic genius and great empathy five DUNDU artists lead the doll.

There‘s also a „DUNDU Baby“. It can be lead by anyone who holds it on his or her lap or lets it jump on his or her shoulder, but can also be used in performances of several people in coordination.

The students of SEKEM’s Heliopolis University had an enjoyable day with DUNDU. DUNDU walked across the campus and visited the square in which SEKEM co-workers meet every day, the campus garden and many other places. It even entered the big lecture hall, which was then filled to the last seat.

Impressions

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SEKEM Insight | Februar 2013 | Page 6

The German GLS Bank, a lead-ing ethical bank and investor in the SEKEM Initiative, recorded a strong growth of clients and a tripling of their cooperative business credit this last year. The bank also recorded growth in customer deposits, a significantly increased demand for credit and solid earnings across its entire business.

With 20 percent growth overall the GLS Bank remains firmly on the path to strong growth in the immedi-ate future. With an increase in capi-tal from 61 million euros to 93 million euros, the members of the coopera-tive bank have substantially strength-ened its equity base. Accordingly, GLS Bank already fulfils the requirements for new capital rules posed by the new Basel III regulations.

Last year, 27,000 new customers opted for the GLS Bank, an increase of 23 percent. Customer deposits grew by a total of 20 percent. Total lending rose by 26 percent. In 2012, the bank funded social, cultural and environ-mental, educational and residential projects with a total sum of 543 mil-lion euros. GLS Bank was also recently voted the most sustainable business in entire Germany.

Source: GLS Bank

GLS Bank: Positive Outlook for the Future

Large Congress Attracts Waldorf Teachers to Vienna

News in Brief

Masthead:The editors of SEKEM Insight wish to thank all contributors to this issue.

Editor:Bijan Kafi, Christina Anlauf

Contact:SEKEM-Insightc/o SEKEM HoldingP.O.Box 2834, El Horreya, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt [email protected]

Pictures: 1, 4: SEKEM; 2: Bijan Kafi

No republication without written consent by the publisher.

The product “Espresso KaapiKerala (whole bean)” by Lebensbaum, a long-term SEKEM partner, has been selected “Demeter Product of the Year 2013”. The spicy scent of the coffee that is produced according to bio-dynamic standards as well as the long-standing and close cooperation of the producer with its cultivation partners have both been deemed entirely “persuasive” by customers voting for the product.

Among the key features of the new Demeter Product of the Year 2013 are: strong demands on cultivation methods, exemplary protection of natural resources, and a clever refine-ment of the finished product are all coming together in “KaapiKerala”. The intense spicy flavour of the first Demeter espresso is expertly com-posed of Arabica and Robusta beans. They mature bio-dynamically culti-vated and protected under shade trees on the plantations of a long-standing cooperation partner of Lebensbaum in South India and the oldest Demeter coffee plantation in Mexico. At these farms, thanks to the extensive use of bio-dynamic preparations, the soil has continuously improved over many years. This as well as the mountain cli-mate shapes the taste of the coffee beans, which is perfectly improved by a gentle roasting process.

The two farms are renowned for their protection of natural resources and the provision of sustainable live-lihoods far beyond the biodynamic scene and have won many awards. Klemens Fischer, member of the Demeter board of directors, explains: „For the Demeter trademark commu-nity, it is this link in the value chain from producer to consumer that has always been essential.“

Source: Demeter

From 1 to 3 May 2013, the Centre for Culture and Education on behalf of the European Network for Academic Steiner Teacher Education (ENASTE) in Vienna organises the international congress „The Educator‘s View of the Human Being - Consequences for Schools and Teacher Education“. The event is directed at teachers and edu-cators in the field of Waldorf/Rudolf Steiner education on a global level.

Educators, philosophers, theolo-gians, neuroscientists and histori-ans will use the congress to analyse and discuss the importance of human nature and an all-encompassing understanding of the human being in pedagogy, school-level education and education systems in general.

As part of the congress 45 speakers from America, Europe and Australia will take to the stage at Vienna. Numerous representatives from Waldorf-based teacher training insti-tutions will participate in the event, which takes place in deliberate con-nection with an international meet-ing of Waldorf teachers. The congress aims to facilitate a fruitful dialogue between the educational science and the Waldorf movement and especially lead to an increased awareness and appreciation of Waldorf education in an academic context.

The conference will be held in the rooms of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (Favoritenstraße 15a, 1040 Vienna) and the Centre for Culture and Education (Tilgnerstraße 3, 1040 Vienna).

Conference languages will be English and German. A reduced regis-tration fee is available for all applica-tions received until 22 February.

Source and information: www.ENASTEcongress2013.net

Demeter Product of the Year 2013 from Lebensbaum

More information:http://www.ENASTEcongress2013.net!More information:

http://www.lebensbaum.de!