Unser Land

Weil wir wissen, wo's herkommt

Country:	Germany
City:	82276 Nassenhausen
Address:	Adelshofener Str. 8
Issues:	food
Home page:	http://www.unserland.info/
Email:

31.01.2010

The initiative UNSER LAND (Our Land) started in 1994 when the parish of a small village in the district of Fürstenfeldbruck decided to physically implement what Christians call responsibility for creation. The overall goal was to give the civil society a choice to shape their living environment. To enable them to do so, regional and sustainable goods (mainly foodstuff) where one by one introduced. This should be supported by means of a urban-rural-network in the region of Munich to build capacities and raise awareness for that those products.

In 1994 bakeries in the district of Fürstenfeldbruck started with a regional bread produced according to guidelines orientated towards environmentally friendly production and social co-operation. With the presentation of the regional bread at Thanksgiving day 1994 the BRUCKER LAND association was found. It was build on the five pillars that are the common structure now for all solidarity communities:

Farmers
Craftsmen and traders
Churches
Environmental groups and
Consumers

With the bread BRUCKER LAND did its first step towards an assortment of sustainable products. While many voluntary members of the BRUCKER LAND solidarity community continued their work in defining new products, establishing the control system, creating consciousness in the society, creating a network of partners ect. A BRUCKER LAND company was founded to establish logistics and a stable product flow to regional and national trading companies (e.g. Tengelmann).

After 8 years the 5 pillars had jointly developed guidelines and a comprehensive control system for about 40 products: bread, flour, eggs, noodles, milk, cheese, honey, etc.. By then BRUCKER LAND decided to support the establishment of similar solidarity communities in 8 neighboring districts. in 2000 the solidarity communities in the 9 rural districts around Munich joined under the umbrella of the UNSER LAND association.

In 2003 the partners in the rural area around Munich started to involve the citizens and organizations of Munich. In 2004 the solidarity community Munich was found.

Goals

Economic goals:

stable framework for the future existence of farms, crafts and small and medium sized enterprises producing high quality nutrition according to strict guidelines, in order to meet challenges and changes in the regional and global economy

partnership between sustainable production entities and large trading chains

framework for the exploitation of renewable energy resources

Environmental goals:

step by step and affordable approach for producers and consumers to achieve fully environmentally friendly nutrition supply
food production taking environmental principles into account
closed regional economic circuits thus reducing transport, avoiding packaging, creating opportunities for recycling of material, etc.
major contributions to the change towards renewable energies

Social goals:

opportunities for civil society to shape their living conditions
active civil society supporting sustainable development
partnerships between business oriented entities, public sector and civil society
maintaining employment opportunities in rural areas thus preventing urbanization tendencies
workplaces in rural areas, as far as possible part time for the fair allocation of labor