Weltacker Wetterau
The Weltacker in the Wetterau is one of the younger members of the Weltacker family. In 2022, however, the idea of a Weltacker was already supported in the Wetterau im Wandel initiative. The Weltacker touring exhibition was printed on roll-ups to publicize the idea. In April 2023, the presentation of the thirteen “Weltacker” roll-ups took place with a panel discussion in the district hall. Since then, the exhibition has been shown in the Kreishaus, in several parishes and town halls, at courtyard parties and on other occasions. This ultimately led to the founding of the non-profit association Weltacker Wetterau e.V. in August 2023.
From spring 2024, the team from Wetterau was then able to lease very fertile farmland in Friedberg/Fauerbach, next to a seasonal garden, from a farmer. In the first field year 2024, 1000 m² of oats and 500 m² of flower strip mixture were initially cultivated by a farmer and 500 m² will be cultivated by hand by the association’s team. The crops planned there are Potatoes, vegetable patch, sugar beet, hemp and flax as representatives for fiber plants, sunflowers as representatives for oil plants, spring wheat as bread grain and field beans as legumes and livestock feed.
This is how the initiative starts its journey towards the vision of a Wetterauer Weltacker based on the Planetary Health Diet.
First guests on the field
Guests were involved in the World Field work right from the start: Primary school children planted potatoes and were able to harvest their first potatoes before the summer vacation. In addition, the team organized numerous events in the first year and continued to spread the world arable idea at trade fairs and with the help of the world arable exhibition.
Things really got going at the end of August at the big summer event in the field. An art teacher taught how to paint with soil, a professor provided a binocular to magnify seeds and grains, the variety of cereals and legumes was explained, the children were allowed to harvest potatoes again, grind grain, it was shown how fibers are obtained from hemp and flax and much more. Hessischer Rundfunk produced a podcast about the association and the event.
It goes on!
The initiative in Wetterau will now take the next steps on the way to becoming a “real” world field and will continue to carry out strong educational work in Hesse in the coming years.
