"A topic relevant for practice as a doctoral thesis"

Isabell Hildermann wrote her bachelor's, master's and doctoral theses at FiBL Switzerland between 2003 and 2010. After nine years at Spielberger Mühle, she now works at naturamus, a sourcing company for organic and fairly-traded raw materials.

I came to FiBL due to a FiBL staff member giving a lecture at the University of Hohenheim, where I studied agricultural sciences from 2000 to 2005 and was looking for an opportunity to gain more knowledge about organic agriculture. Toralf Richter introduced FiBL and ended his lecture with: "If anyone is interested in writing their bachelor's or master's thesis at FiBL, please get in touch". The next day I called, was put through to Paul Mäder because of my major in soil science, who gave me a topic straight away – and everything was settled. That's how I got to know FiBL and I still appreciate it today! You call and get help. I went on to write not only my bachelor's but also my master's thesis in the Departement of Soil Sciences and subsequently got the opportunity to write a dissertation. The topic of this thesis was the question of whether organic farming needs its own plant breeding activities. We conducted wheat variety trials in the DOK trial for this purpose.

After my dissertation, I headed the quality management of the Spielberger Mühle for nine years, where I worked on the topic of organic breeding in practice and ensured that more and more biodynamically bred cereal varieties were cultivated and that the consumers were informed about it. People from cereal breeding programmes that I got to know during my dissertation helped me a lot. To me, it was always very special to work on a topic relevant for practice on my doctoral thesis and not just one that ends up in a drawer somewhere. A topic that is more important today than ever, because seeds are the basis of our nutrition and must remain independent.

Now I work at naturamus GmbH, the procurement service for WALA Heilmittel GmbH. We source high-quality, organic raw materials for natural cosmetics and herbal medicines. I still regularly visit the FiBL homepage and always find something that helps me. Currently, I am working on biodiversity, corporate sustainability, CO₂ balancing and certification.

It is incredible how much FiBL has grown since I first visited it 20 years ago – congratulations to the whole FiBL network! I wish that FiBL will continue to be a pioneer and an inspiring place for innovative ideas for the organic agriculture of the future!