SEKEM Insight

SEKEM‘s Journal for Economy, Culture, and Society in Egypt

SEKEM Insight Nr. 77 - December 2008

Dear Readers, SEKEM Insight has always highlighted the importance of global partnerships with individuals and organisations for the manifold developments at SEKEM. With the various prestigious awards presented to both Ibrahim Abouleish and SEKEM these cooperations have taken on a whole new dimension since 2003.

Honors Ibrahim Abouleish receives German award

Tourism SEKEM expands travel options for visitors

Climate Change First international SEKEM conference

Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish Receives German Award

In November the first international SEKEM conference was held at the initiative.

Several hundred guests used the event to discuss with their peers, the co-workers of SEKEM, and its executive personnel how the development of global agriculture can be furthered in a sustainable way and how Third World countries can be supported to take advantage of it to boost their development.

Through the event SEKEM was able to show that it is capable to pro-actively work for the efficient replication of the approaches it has been developing for over thirty years. At the same time the interest of the global professional public clearly demonstrated the great trust that is placed in the work of the initiative and its ability to contribute to the dialogue. And, that the way it has chosen for itself was the right one.

Your Editors

Dr. Abouleish receives the German award from the embassador and in the company of Ulrich Walter

Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish, founder of the SEKEM Initiative in Egypt, was presented with the highest German civil award, the „Bundesverdienstkreuz“ of the Federal Republic of Germany on 27 November 2008. The German representative in Egypt, Bernd Erbel, recognised the lifetime achievement of Ibrahim Abouleish at an event at the embassy in Cairo. The Federal Republic of Germany has thus honoured his tireless work for intercultural and interfaith exchange with Germany. „I experience it as a beautiful sign of friendship between the SEKEM initiative and Germany. Our rela-

tionships with many people in Germany, with our trading partners, our support association, and with representatives of the federal government have always been and continue to be of vital importance for the development of SEKEM“, Ibrahim Abouleish declared.

Ulrich Walter, founder and executive director of the organic food business of the same name based in Diepholz had supported the recognition of his work as a long-standing trading partner of SEKEM. „The SEKEM initiative is in close contact with Germany. The mutual cultural exchange that is furthered espe-

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cially through Ibrahim Abouleish’s personal work is of great relevance to both nations. His visions, his courage, and his experiences inspire and encourage to seek for new ways to make it happen. I have been working with SEKEM for 25 years and after a quarter of a century of close friendship I have had many opportunities to witness the benefits this cooperation brings to everyone involved”, Ulrich Walter explains his motivations for nominating Ibrahim Abouleish for the award.

Christina Boecker

Innovative Ideas for Agriculture and Business On 26 November SEKEM’s farm saw the first international conference on „Sharing Innovative Solutions in Agribusiness“. More than 400 experts from economics, science, and politics from more than 60 countries came to SEKEM to participate in the event that had been organised by UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization).

In times of great financial crisis on a global scale and the massive challenges of a rise of global populations, climate change, and agriculture this topic is of acute and broad relevance. However, not the problems were at the forefront of the visitors’ interest in SEKEM - instead, the

SEKEM‘s Roman Theatre is the location for its first international conference

event focused on practical solutions and their implementation. More than 120 innovative approaches spread over 4 sectors had been submitted to the conference organisations before the event.

On the topic of supply and value chains several concepts were discussed that aim to create “winwin-situations” through various integrative methods.

SEKEM’s IAP (International Association for Partnership) is an example how trust can be built among partners to create value.

Another set of presentations was held on the issue of standards and certification. Many producers take advantage of such measures to increase their margins. They can, however, at the same time function as market barriers. It is therefore imperative to carefully judge their potential effects in the long term.

Providers of services (trainings, sales etc.) as well as associations of producers thus can play an important role in opening access to lucrative markets for small suppliers.

The third conference forum focussed on technical innovation like passive cooling systems. They are based on facilities that have been cooled in advance to be used later during long-distance transports. The centralised cooling is more efficient and reduces the need for expensive infrastructure.

Also controversially debated where financial concepts. Contrary to other sectors there are not many financial products available that are targeted to the specific needs of agricultural business. It is necessary to create opportunities here that are available to secure the risks inevitably present when working with natural products and offer access to credit.

Public SEKEM Celebration Attracts Crowds On 27 November numerous visitors, co-workers of SEKEM, pupils, and graduates of the SEKEM facilities came together in the Roman Theatre of the initiative to cele-

Young musicians celebrate in SEKEM

brate its 31st birthday. The event was opened by the „Chiba Quartet“ accompanied by Barbara Graf from Germany.

The representatives from the SEKEM firms and the SEKEM Development Foundation reported on the achievements of the past year, the present situation, and their visions for the future. In spite of the global financial crisis all firms have developed well over the past 12 months.

Traditionally more than 60 co-workers where honored for their loyalty in working for SEKEM for seven years.

The decision to hold such a big conference in SEKEM demonstrates the need for innovative solutions in the field and that SEKEM’s work is indeed taken seriously by international stakeholders.

The climax of the event was the choir of teachers lead by Bernhard Sieberer. The pupils of the 6th grade then enchanted the visitors with their dancing using colourful ribbons and accessories. The theatre play „the sultania“ was presented by 84 children from the kindergarten, the lower and middle grades, as well as the vocational training centre.

The choir of pupils and their teachers from the SEKEM School together with the school’s orchestra accompanied the play.

Martin Haagen

Martin Haagen

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Making Honey in the Desert: A Pioneering Idea Beyond the Arab World?

Producing demeter-certified honey in the Arab world? Why not? But where to start? - where else if not on the SEKEM Farm?

Firstly, SEKEM already has it’s own bee hives with around 100 peoples of bees. Secondly, the location offers an excellent starting point due to its infrastructure and the existence of several well-developed organic food projects that have proven their value. Ibrahim Abouleish has with his vision enabled a small part of the Egyptian desert to flourish - to the benefit of many Egyptians and other partners as well as visitors. Some have now begun to develop a new project on this basis that is supposed to coun-

decision to build on the experience already available and develop new approaches to cultivating bees in more comprehensive ways by integrating them into the living organism of biodynamic cultivation on the SEKEM farm. To this end a contact was established to the master apiculturist Günter Friedmann. In Southern Germany, Friedmann runs the world’s largest demeter apiary.

He has received several prizes for his work. SEKEM also appointed a talented young apiarist from Egypt, Islam, to assist Friedmann in his work.

During his first visits Günter Friedmann and Islam examined the biggest of the apiaries and build contacts to biodynamic agricultural firms and to the faculty of apiculture at the University of Cairo and Assiut as well as to the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture. It quickly became clear that an immediate transition to applying demeter regulations in SEKEM’s apiaries was out of the question. Many of the bee hives suffered from diseases and showed traces of infections with Varroa mites.

The honey yield was very low even though sugar was used during the year as feed for the bees. The bee hives did not have enough power to develop a self-sustaining immunity, to build swarms and to naturally produce their own combs.

SEKEM‘s bee hives are well on their way to producing high quality demeter-certified honey

ter the “desertification” of the bee as a living being requiring protection and careful attention.

Producing honey from bee hives has a long tradition in Egypt that spans thousands of years. In the past bee hives have also been set up on the SEKEM Farm itself. They have been cared for by indigenous workers in the conventional way of honey production still common in Egypt. It was therefore an obvious

Initially the biggest challenge was to find the source of these weaknesses. In long talks with indigenous apiarists the partners were able to shed some light on the issue: the honey yields had still been more than excellent 20 years ago. Since then modern agriculture has radically changed the landscape of the Egyptian countryside: intensive agricultural methods, use of insecticides, herbicides, disappearance of plants important to the bee’s nourishment. Moreover, new bee hives and queens that were not adapted to the local climatic conditions were introduced from Europe. This lead to a highly intensive exploitation

of the local bee population without regard to the natural requirements of healthy bee development. The fight against the Varroa mite also led to significant losses in bee populations and damage during breeding due to the local climatic conditions.

SEKEM’s new partners began to employ several changes to the common practice to fight the existing problems. For instance, to counter the threat arising from widespread Varroa infections they began to use lactic acid instead of formic acid since early 2008. Contrary to formic acid lactic acid is effective independent of the temperature and is not harmful to the bee themselves.

Moreover, the selection of healthy bee hives that are also adapted to the local conditions from the outset has received more attention in the training of new apiarists.

The success that has been achieved through the new measures is promising. The threat from the Varroa mite has been checked and has together with the other measures led to bee hives that are already measurably healthier throughout the entire cycle of their development.

However, Günter Friedmann did not want to leave it at that. After a long search he was able to discover several bee hives of the original Egyptian species in upper Egypt that are smaller, less demanding and still much healthier than the new varieties. The honey yield is however somewhat smaller. It is expected that SEKEM will have the opportunity to purchase about 20 of these bee hives in early 2009.

The situation of apiculture is basically the same in most of the Gulf states and the other Middle East countries. This is why SEKEM’s project is so important and relevant to its future healthy development.

The initiative’s apiarists are doing pioneering work to strengthen the role of the bee in the natural landscape of the countries in a fully sustainable way.

Angela Hofmann/Günter Friedmann

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New Opportunities for Experiencing SEKEM Influenced by a conference at the Goetheanum, Switzerland, on the topic of the „World Religions“ a teacher from one of the RudolfSteiner-Schools of the Lake Constance region in Germany, Dietmar Kreuer, years ago began to organise trips to SEKEM for the general public.

The first trip had been offered to the participants of one of SEKEM‘s Islam Seminars that is today held annually on the initiative’s premises. The seminar turned out to be a fascinating experience for the participants and many of them asked for a continuation with the aim to provide more opportunities for a creative exchange of cultures.

On the basis of the experience of the first trips Dietmar Kreuer developed a lasting cooperation with SEKEM and since then many people have taken the opportunity to visiting Egypt and SEKEM on individually prepared travels organised by him.

SEKEM now plans to expand these offerings.

The testimonies of the travellers speak for themselves: „I have been visiting Cairo in May 2008 on a trip organised by sekem-reisen. The SEKEM farm - as far as it can actually still be called a farm - is an impressive project and the trip gave me the chance to experienced the work done by its co-workers and partners first hand.

The cordial welcome I received on the premises of SEKEM combined with excellent tours around the premises created an impressive and lasting experience for me.“ Another visitors underlines: „Looking back at my visit I can safely say that the organsation of both the Islam seminar and the trip itself were excellent. Our reports have incited strong interest in visiting Egypt among our families and friends.“

Out of the initial set of tours the organisers have now developed an expanded set of trip offerings that combine smaller tours to various places interesting to anyone.

Several of them lead visitors to such places as the White Desert in Western Egypt, to Luxor or to the Red Sea. They are offered under the names of „SEKEM plus Desert“, „SEKEM plus Dahabeya“, and SEKEM plus Red Sea“.

More information is available on the website of “sekem-reisen” and with the new tours everyone keen on experiencing SEKEM and the work of its founder as well as that of his partners personally can do so by contacting Dietmar Kreuer, info@ sekem-reisen.de, www.sekemreisen.de, Tel. +49-(0)7556-931777 Dietmar Kreuer, Christina Boecker

SEKEM Participates in EUDN Conference in Paris Last November SEKEM representatives participated in the international EUDN conference in Paris.

The conference’s chief topics focused on the growing pressure on natural resources (agricultural lands, forests, water spaces, pastures, fossil fuels, etc.) that occur as a result of population growth and increasing demand accompanying improvements in standards of living in various parts of the world. The main questions where such a pressures can be managed in a sustainable way in the long run and what role public policies can play in influencing them.

In attempting to provide answers to these challenges, SEKEM participated to contribute its own visions for a better world. Its participation also meant to illustrate its keen interest in contributing actively to finding solutions that balance the interests of a few with those of the many.

Impressionen

The first green appears on SEKEM Sinai‘s desert soils

Where during the first sand storms of spring the first trees had been planted on SEKEM Sinai‘s pristine soils the first green sprouts appeared only a few months later. Many people had worked on the grounds during the summer heat planting the new seedlings and bringing in selfproduced compost to reinvigorate the previously infertile desert.

Moreover, the necessary infrastructure had to be created to allow the vigorous growth that expected during the cooler months to come.

Now, since this autumn also clover was planted to inject nitrates into the ground and prepare everything for the expected growth that will be made possible through the new irrigation systems.

Impressum: Herausgeber: SEKEM, Egypt Die Redaktion von SEKEM Insight dankt allen Korrespondenten, die an dieser Ausgabe mitgewirkt haben.

Redakteure: Christina Boecker Bijan Kafi Kontakt: SEKEM-Insight c/o Sekem Holding P.O.Box 2834, El Horreya, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt insight@sekem.com

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