Wanted: Strong personalities
Better flour
for cleaner water
They sound like names of nice people from the Far East: Wiwa, Ataro or Tengri. They're not. They are actually three varieties of local organic winter wheat which Moin uses in its production.
They were developed over a number of years by Swiss grain grower Peter Kunz.
The Swiss national began to grow organic grain 25 years ago and the grain Wiwa, mentioned above, received its market authorization in 2005.
Wiwa, Ataro and Tengri all have very distinct personalities and complement each other wonderfully. As a result, they supply us with good quality flour for baking despite their lower protein content.
Why is the protein content of grain so important?
It plays a role in the quality of the products. Protein influences the bonding and baking properties of the dough. Less protein in the flour means that the dough is less stable.
Soil needs nitrogen in order for the protein to enter the plant. Farmers introduce a last batch of protein into the plant by fertilizing it with nitrogen shortly before harvesting. In the soil nitrogen turns into nitrate which finds its way into the groundwater, thus impacting the quality of our drinking water. Unfortunately, this means that Germany has been exceeding EU limits for years, and the government has not taken any action.
We as bakers, together with breeders, have real leverage here. We know that, when we make do with less protein in the flour or simply combine different types of flour, we greatly contribute to the reduction of fertilizer use. In this way we can protect the health of soil and water and, consequently, our own health.
This requires a lot of attention and constant adjustment to the raw materials that we use, but we believe that it is definitely worth it!
A pilot project in lower Franconia is proof that this actually works. In 2004, at the request of the local district government four conventional farmers started fertilizing their plants only twice instead of three times per crop year with nitrogen. The result was that the groundwater became considerably cleaner (you can find out more about the project here: https://www.wasserschutzbrot.de/).
Together with you, we have the possibility to become custodians of our soil and our groundwater. Doesn’t that sound good?
My Ingredient
If you like the sound of this, you can help and get involved - and not just by buying our products. ;)
We don‘t want Bayer/Monsanto to decide on the future of our food and agriculture. Therefore, we support the work of ecological seed breeding. Not just for the quality of Moin products but for the freedom of our society. It is worth taking action on behalf of mother Earth, because our well-being depends on hers.
The seed fund of the charitable organization GLS Treuhand is central to the financing of research and organic seed breeding. It is only thanks to donations and contributions from companies and charitable organizations that various European grain, vegetable and fruit breeding projects can be supported. One of these projects is the association “Getreidezüchtung Peter Kunz“. For more information, you can go to www.getreidezüchtung.ch.
So if you’d like to contribute, you can support his association with a donation. You can find all the details below:
Saatgutfonds der Zukunftsstiftung Landwirtschaft in der LGS Treuhand
IBAN: DE34 4306 0967 0030 0054 10
BIC: GENODEM1GLS
Verwendungszweck: Saatgutforschung GZPK
2. If you want further information on this topic, you can find plenty of material here:
https://www.zukunftsstiftung-landwirtschaft.de/saatgutfonds/infomaterial/
And how about ordering their flyer and giving it to your baker? Or simply leaving a few flyers there! Some might call this Guerilla Marketing. We call it: Making a difference!
Should you want to delve even deeper into this topic, we can recommend the ZDF documentary “Die Saatgut-Retter.“ Check it out on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz3oZOeY6FE .