The Green School (MAOS)
Connecting smallholders and students
Smallholder agriculture generates many positive benefits for society, the economy and the environment. It often relies on traditional and sustainable practices and contributes to food security by providing local supply structures. Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the threat of a food crisis, these local structures are particularly important because they are independent of long transportation routes and complex supply chains.
However, small family farms are particularly affected by displacement through industrial agriculture. In order to strengthen small family farms, we establish personal contacts between producers and schools, raise awareness of the positive benefits of small-scale agriculture and strive for the direct marketing of products. In this way, we promote climate- and species-friendly agriculture, healthy nutrition and physical activity.
We do this by working with various school classes to develop a marketing concept for the small family farms. Part of this concept will be the MAOS label, which stands for Multifunktionale AgroOekoSysteme (eng. Multifunctional AgroEcoSystems).
Project director: Dr. M. Rodriguez-Lopez / Dr. Katharina Heider
Partner organizations: Berufliche Schule Harburg/ Stadtteilschule Stellingen / Gut Haidehof / Solidarische Landwirtschaft Superschmelz
Photo: Leonie Hinrichs Fotografie