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Chickens cluck excitedly as we walk into the spacious hen house. A thousand plump bundles of tan and white feather going about the business of feeding, drinking water and laying warm, brown eggs in the spaces provided. With our entry they turn their attention to our footwear. They peck at the snow clinging to our boots and untie the laces with deft, quick plucks and tugs, hoping these turn out to be worms! They stream outdoors and, keeping out of the snow, run alongside the pen jabbing furiously at the mud in their search for delectable organisms.
The special thing about this poultry farm is that its warm, brown eggs are the product of ´happy´ chickens fed on organic, plant-based feed and allowed to live their lives naturally. They will be marketed in a premier Austrian supermarket chain in the range of ´Yes, Natural´ because they are certified by the Austrian Bio Guarantee authority to do so. And they will sell at a price that is 30 per cent higher than ordinary eggs. Despite this, they will be snapped up by a rapidly expanding band of discerning consumers concerned about health – their own, and that of their environment. The same applies to egg noodles that are produced at the farm. As also to the beef cattle raised here; because this too is `bio beef, ´ selling at a cost 20 per cent more than that from the opposing ´factory farmed` animals. The last are products of a system that strives most meat, milk and eggs as quickly and cheaply as possible with scant regard for health, environmental and ethical considerations.
We are at `Ortnerhof,` a farm that belongs to the Raninger family. It is strung along the hillside in Sallaberg (in Aigen district, Steiermark state of central Austria), a village about 150 km south of Salzburg housing some 300 residents. It comprises a 25-hectare estate of forest, pasture, farmhouses and inn, surrounded by slopes that sweep down to the scenic river Enns valley below; and climb up to a conifer clad hilltop. Snow bound in winter, Ortnerhof and its surrounds attract seasonal skiers. But views are spectacular at any time of the year, with glistening snows replaced by luxuriant greens and
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sparkling lakes in summer. A major landmark is Grimming, an elevated off shoot of the Kalkgestein mountain range, visible from any part of Ortnerhof.
It is after the rocky mass of Grimming that the ´organic, ´ ´bio´ products of Ortnerhof take their name - ´Grimming Eier´ (Grimming Eggs) and ´Grimming Eier Nudeln´ (Grimming Eggs Noodles). Herbert Raninger, a strapping 34 year-old Austrian, operates Ortnerhof, assisted by his mother Mathilde, wife Elke (she runs an organic foods shop at the farm), and with the blessings of his grandmother Mutta, a wizened 92 year old. Barely a few years ago, she engaged actively in farming and household chores but now, loves to play the prank with her grandchildren and spends the rest of her time on a variety of handicraft.
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For several generations, the Raningers have farmed Ortnerhof sans the use of chemicals on crops (no chemical fertilisers; no chemical pesticides, herbicides and fungicides) and raised cattle in a natural, free-ranging environment without packing them tightly in barns with scarcely any space for animals to move; without administering growth hormones on them; not dousing them with antibiotics; and feeding them only home grown fodder or putting them to pasture, completely refraining from offal in their diet.
“We always did bio farming, but no one called it that. It is only now that the term has started applying to the kind of farming we have been doing all along,” Herbert tells us as we explore Ortnerhof with him. In an `egg room` below the barn, Mathilde busies herself sorting heaps of eggs (average daily production at the farm is 800) by size and packing them in
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recycled cartons. They range from extra large to tiny. “This one nicht gut für supermarkt,” she says, plucking out a miniature one as it rolls down the mechanical sorter and keeping it aside. Asked whether it would be gut für nudeln, Mathilde says, “Jo, jo!” (pronounced ´yo yo´ - yes, yes).That is how the Grimming egg noodles idea was born.
There were these mini eggs that wouldn´t sell even though they were fine in every other way. So, bio flour purchased from a certified organic supplier, salt, pure Alpine water, mini Grimming eier, a noodle-making machine, drying room and, bingo! You get bio noodles of all types, sizes, and shapes (in the form of hens, spirals, bow ties, strings...and even the euro) that are selling like hot cakes; purchased by hotels, supermarkets, groceries and individuals.
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We ascend to a loft laden with sweet smelling hay harvested and stored for winter use; with the excess rolled up and packaged in plastic sheeting left lying outdoors. Right now, the bundles are snow coated. “All the nutritional value is preserved in the hay when it is so packaged,” explains Herbert as we walk past a huge mass of manure – cattle dung and chicken droppings – that is used to fertilise the hay fields.
In the barn below the hayloft, eight healthy cattle loll about, ruminating. They stare wide-eyed at us as we saunter in. Herbert says they are pure Austrian breeds – Alpen fleckvieh, whose lineage can be traced back over 30 years. They spend at least 180 to 200 days a year in pasture, and winter in the barn where a minimum area of 5 sq metres per cow is mandatory for bio certification. Not so in the case of factory farmed animals, for which there is no minimum space requirement, so any number may be kept in a barn this size. Occasionally, the Ortnerhof cattle may be let out in winter, so they may frolic about in the snow for an hour or so at a time.
These cattle very rarely fall ill. If and when a cow does, and has to be treated with antibiotics, it loses its bio beef
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label and cannot fetch the associated high price. This happens just once in a way when water puddles in the pasture cause bacterial infection affecting hooves.
About 10 per cent of Austrian farms have withdrawn from intensive, factory farming of animals in favour of bio rearing, the highest in Europe. There is a very strong movement, Herbert informs us, against mass production animal farms and for a change of production techniques to biological, and other environmentally acceptable, benign methods. For a start, no new ´battery chicken´ farms are being allowed in the EU. Ortnerhof bio certified seven years ago by becoming a member of ´Ernte, ´ one of a number of bio farmer unions. Every year there are spot checks by Ernte and the Austrian Bio Guarantee authority to ensure that mandatory norms are being adhered to.
We want to take one last look at the happy chickens and approach the hen house by a bubbling waterway that turns out to be a pond in which fish are being reared for home consumption. As we enter the hen pen once again, chickens greet us with joyous squaks and head straight for our shoes.
In this bio farm, a hen does what, when and how it wants – move about, sleep, sharpen claws, eat, lay an egg...hence a ´happy´ chicken. Space, Herbert informs us, is an important difference between bio and battery chickens. At Ortnerhof there is 1 sq metre indoor space per 5 hens. On the other hand, battery chickens may accomodate 25 hens per sq metre. They live their lives crammed in a series of cages, eating, drinking, laying eggs; imprisoned until slaughtered (after a year or so) and shredded into products that use chicken in diced up form – soups, pies, pet food….?
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In a bio farm, the extent of outside space is equally vital: 10 sq metres per hen. Herbert has provided even more space. And for food, they are given plant-based food purchased from a certified bio supplier.
As a brisk wind picks up and snowflakes begin to dance in the air, we make our way to Elke´s organic food store to purchase some Grimming Eier Nudeln. We select the latest Euro shaped ones, thinking we may celebrate the currency launch with a Euro Nudlen meal over the New Year.
On our way out, Mutta waves to us cheerfully from her window. “Auf wiedersehen. Senden uns eine postkart.” We will do better – send her a copy of this article. And slip in a couple of postcards of our dunes and dhows.
Sulabha Oak, resident of Dubai, writes in to say:
Some years ago my friend and I made it a practice to take used plastic bags to the supermarket where we were regular customers. Although the staff gave in to our demand of packing our purchases in those bags, they thought we were out of our minds. Later on I started using my own shopping trolley. It was expensive but it was a very effective way of avoiding unnecessary use of plastic.
I feel that in this mission against excessive use of plastic we need the support of buyers as well as sellers.
Sellers:
- boards at the check out counters encouraging customers to use less plastic bags
- jute bags with the name of the supermarket printed on them, kept for sale
- jute bags may even be given to customers free, after purchase of merchandise exceeding certain amount
- jute bags kept along with items on promotion
- a message printed on the plastic bags that advises people to reuse the bags.
Buyers:
- select items (i.e. vegetables which can be segregated easily at a later stage – banana, tomato, beans.) and weigh them separately but put them in one plastic bag and stick all the bar-coded labels on to that single bag for check out
- at big supermarkets where the trolley can be carted after check out, all the way to the car park – avoid using plastic bags altogether. Put your shopping in bags stored in the car boot
- reuse the bags for garbage instead of buying and using black garbage bags
- carry a couple of neatly folded bags in your handbag for use on unplanned visits to the supermarkets
One might feel that saving a couple of bags at any given time will not make much of a difference but when more and more people make this a habit, it will go a long in avoiding plastic abuse.
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WHAT ON EARTH CAN WE DO?
Olivia Jhingran, Salzburg resident, writes:
When I go to the supermarket , I always carry a shoulder bag or rucksack and slip in a used plastic bag for any spill over shopping. In Austria we are charged for each plastic carrier bag we pick up in stores, the price varying between large and small bags. Apart from the cost, it is the huge quantities of bags one accumulates if one brings these from daily trips to the supermarket. There is only so much that one can reuse. And to dump surplus bags is so wasteful, besides being polluting. When my husband shops he sometimes uses packing cartons that supermarkets put out for customers to take away for free. He can do that because he drives to the store.
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