Mon, 01 Dec 2003

Petition for real freedom of choice in education presented to Swiss parliament

Bern, 1 December (NNA) – A petition with more than 40,000 signatures demanding real freedom of choice in education by also providing state funding for state-recognised non-state schools was presented to the Swiss parliament by the “elternlobby schweiz” (Swiss Parent Lobby) at the end of last week.

According to a report by the Swiss Anthroposophical Media Office, the petition says that it is not enough for freedom of choice in education to be provided just on a formal legal basis, and that there cannot be real freedom of choice until non-state schools which are recognised by the state receive state funding to enable parents, who would not otherwise be able to afford it, to send their children there. Parents from Rudolf Steiner schools play a leading role in the „elternlobby schweiz“.

Only if state-recognised non-state schools received public funding would equality of opportunity increase so that each child had the chance to attend the school best suited to its needs – as was shown by Finland, a leading country in the OECD programme for international student assessment (PISA), the “elternlobby schweiz” says.

ENDS

Item: N031201-01EN Date: 1 December 2003

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Unfair competition between organic and conventional agriculture – Demeter movement discusses future challenges

Darmstadt, 1 December (NNA) – Industrial agriculture has been given a licence to destroy the environment and, what is more, receives subsidies for doing so. This was the view expressed by Dr.  Thilo Bode of Foodwatch at the most recent annual members’ meeting and conference of the Demeter movement in Alfter near Bonn just over a week ago. This situation in turn led to a complete distortion of prices which were then used as a basis for organic food prices, Bode was quoted as saying in a Demeter statement.

“There is no level playing field between conventional and organic agriculture,” Bode said. “If this occurred in any other context, it would long ago have been prohibited as unfair competition.“ Bode went on to discuss realistic and realisable steps on the path to „intelligent consumerism“, the statement said.

In a successful combination of annual members’ meeting and conference, the Demeter movement further discussed ways to meet the challenges facing bio-dynamic agriculture.

Presentations at the event, organised by the Forschungsring bio-dynamic research organisation, the Demeter Association and the Demeter Market Forum, outlined the current situation and urgent issues arising in the fields of production, retailing and consumer protection. These issues were then intensively discussed in working groups, Demeter said.

Änder Schanck from Luxembourg, board member of Demeter International, for example called for the introduction of a bio-dynamic quality label referring specifically to the production process alongside the Demeter label.

Joachim Bauck presented successful concepts for Demeter retail outlets in Norway with the Helios shops while Axel Bergfeld, a wholefood retailer from Bonn, spoke about the German market. Volkmar Spielberger from the company NaturataSpielberger AG looked at operating margins from a new perspective and Klaus Wais reflected on growth from the viewpoint of a Demeter farmer.

In the elections to the Demeter Association board during the members’ meeting, the current members were re-elected. After a two-year gap the Stuttgart Demeter farmer Christof Simpfendörfer rejoined the board, replacing Walter Schmidt.

ENDS

Item: N031201-02EN Date: 1 December 2003

Copyright 2003 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See http://www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: http://www.nna-news.org/content/