2000 square meters of arable land on which everything grows what a person needs. Or what he just doesn’t need? The “Weltacker” in Landshut encourages visitors to think about their diet and consumer behavior. The initiator of the project is Klaus Karg. Together with a few fellow campaigners, he brought the field to life. The area has not yet been threshed and harvested. There is a lot to see and question on a guided tour.
In percentage terms, what is actually grown on the world’s arable land is grown on the “Weltacker”. Wheat takes up the most space, followed by corn, barley and oil crops. Rice is actually way ahead, says Karg. But because the climate is difficult to grow here, rice has been replaced by oats on the Landshut “Weltacker”. It is similar with cotton, instead of which fiber was planted.
If you were to divide the world’s arable land among people, each individual would be entitled to around 2000 square meters, explains Karg. The 71-year-old is not a farmer, but worked as a mechanical engineer. But environmental protection is important to him, he has been self-sufficient for decades, as he says. In terms of consumption, however, an EU citizen consumes an average of the harvest of around 2,700 square meters of arable land. “Why is 2000 square meters not enough for us?” Asks Karg – and immediately has three examples ready: A pig needs the yield of 1000 square meters in order to feed it ready for slaughter. And the average German eats half a pig every year. If only rapeseed was planted on 2,000 square meters, the result would be biodiesel that is sufficient for a journey of 4,000 kilometers. “But Germans drive an average of 14,000 kilometers a year.”
From the area reserved for cotton, cotton could be harvested for 15 T-shirts. The average person buys 50 items of clothing a year. But there are also synthetic fibers and other fabrics included, says Karg.
When visiting the “Weltackers” it quickly becomes clear: In large parts of the world, people consume significantly more than would be available on average and are dependent on imports. Karg is not an eco-missionary. The project is only intended to provide visitors with a mental stimulus, especially when it comes to throwing away behavior. At least a third of the global harvest is thrown away or is not even put on the market – because the cucumber does not have the shape desired by the customer.
The “Weltacker” in Landshut is maintained by an association, the neighboring agricultural education center has made the area available free of lease and given start-up assistance with the management. The seeds were donated by farmers, says initiator Karg. For example, they would have bought the apple trees and small garden tools. The start-up capital was around 15,000 euros. The “Weltacker” project requires a lot of idealism: Karg hopes that there will be more interested parties to help with the maintenance.
The association is also betting on receiving state funding in the future. “We do educational work here.” Shortly before the end of the last school year, a few classes were still visiting. The club wants to expand this in the coming year.
The Agriculture Future Foundation in Berlin is behind the “Weltacker” project. She has had the name protected and provides partner initiatives worldwide with information material. In Germany there are currently five “world fields”: in Berlin, Osnabrück, Überlingen on Lake Constance, Rothenklempenow in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and, since this summer, in Landshut. A “world field” is also to be built in Nuremberg. There are also branches in Switzerland, France, Austria, Liechtenstein, Kenya and India.