"Do not let dreams grow old"
FiBL staff member and farmer
"Don't wait until you're 50 to make your dreams come true – be brave! I finally took over a farm as part of a partnership at the age of 55, and that was probably the best decision of my life."
On a grand mission
Regula, the daughter of a family of bakers, developed a passion for farming at an early age and harboured the desire to become a Demeter farmer – though not necessarily a female farmer.
What was considered unthinkable by those around her became her dream over the decades. With the mission to save the world, she first went to work on alpine pastures and subsequently studied agronomy.
Her courage
"Forty years ago, I didn't have the courage to train in agriculture. Instead, I went to university and worked on farms in my spare time. After 30 years of office work, I finally took the chance to run a farm myself.
At the age of 54, I managed to do this with the help of complete strangers, as nobody in my family wanted anything to do with farming."
A generational shift
"Our farm, which we run as a limited liability company (GmbH), is only marginally influenced by the fact that I am a woman, as we don't adhere to traditional gender roles.
I've noticed that the young female farmers are – fortunately – far ahead of me, both mentally and technically. I'm still heavily influenced by the mindset I internalised as a girl and a woman: 'That's too hard for you', 'You can't do that', and so on, which has held me back."