Food scares, financial worries drive many to self-sufficiency

By Irena Guettel Jul 7, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Berne, Germany - When it comes down to food, Werner Meinlschmidt does not compromise. His plate contains only vegetables from his own garden and meat that he has reared himself.

Meinlschmidt is self-sufficient - and proud of it. 'It was always my dream,' he says, looking every bit the part, with untrimmed grey beard, long hair and wiry frame.

The 63-year-old man lives along with his wife, daughter, grandchildren and his parents on a carefully restored farm in a village near the northern German port of Bremen.

On his 3,500 square metres he grows beans, potatoes, strawberries, apples and many different herbs, unsprayed of course.

Meinlschmidt still helps out as a bookkeeping assistant, but his heart has been in farming since his childhood. Ten years ago his family started out with a sheep and some vegetables, and today a flock of sheep and several cows are grazing on the meadow.

In the yard, hens and ducks are foraging, and rabbits tumble in their hutches. A sow is grunting as she digs in the dirt.

'That's our sausage pig,' the farmer says. Her two compatriots have long since been turned into ham, bacon and cured pork by his wife.

The family will start raising three piglets in June until they are ready for slaughter. 'When you have cared for the animals from birth to death, you can happily eat them,' Meinlschmidt believes.

He utterly rejects commercial meat on ethical grounds.

Many people currently think the way Meinlschmidt does. Alarmed by pesticide use, a recent deadly outbreak of E coli in Germany and the financial crisis, many Europeans have had their confidence in global markets shaken.

Instead of the trip to the supermarket to stock up on vegetables, they are starting to grow their own, confident that the next crisis is just around the corner.

Self-sufficiency networks have arisen, where members exchange information on how to keep snails out, growing plants from cuttings and seeds untainted by genetic modification.

Classics of the genre, like John Seymour's Self Sufficiency, first published in 1970, are in great demand once more, and the publishers have issued a new edition.

Next month a new book on sowing and planting, keeping chickens, baking bread and constructing drainage and water purification systems will appear. Other publishers have also put out guides on how to live off the land.

German sustainability researcher Niko Paech discerns a clear trend. 'What is new is that not only those moving to the countryside are growing their own, but that city people are also doing it,' he says.

The balcony and the communal garden are finding a new purpose. 'A garden provides security, because you know there are certain things that you can rely on,' Paech says.

Sustainability as self-preservation is a message that has got through to all classes. Many believe the global financial system could collapse at any time.

Growing your own food and keeping stocks in the cellar is increasingly common in Germany, particularly among the educated classes.

Margret Schmidt, 65, grows as much fruit and vegetables as she needs the whole year round on her 460 square metres garden in Osnabrueck in the west of Germany. She preserves and freezes for the times of scarcity.

Food scares, like the recent E coli outbreak linked to salads, leave her cold. 'I can happily eat greens from my garden, and they taste better,' she says.

However, self-sufficiency is not easy, as Meinlschmidt acknowledges. 'My grandchildren eat noodles too,' he says.

But he does get angry when his wife buys fresh produce in the supermarket, as she did recently with kohlrabi when his own was not quite ready to harvest.

And his son-in-law moved out when he had finally had enough. 'He didn't like the hard work,' was Meinlschmidt's verdict.