Demeter board spokesman, Alexander Gerber, acknowledges the co-founder and long-standing chairman of the Working Group for Organic Farming (AGÖL) as an important driving force for sustainable agriculture. "Jan von Ledebur has contributed significantly to the success of organic farming thanks to his ability to bring together agricultural stakeholders and to initiate important developments from these discussions."
Following an agricultural apprenticeship, Jan Freiherr von Ledebur managed the parental estate, Crollage in Westphalia, which he converted to a biologically dynamic management. Subsequently, he studied agricultural sciences in Göttingen and Berlin. In 1993 he became Managing Director of the Research Center for Biologically Dynamic Economics in Darmstadt. He has also been involved in international projects and has provided an important impetus across all continents on the board of directors of the global umbrella organisation for eco-movements, IFOAM, said Demeter in an obituary. In 1988, he was not only one of the founders of the Organic Farming Work Group (AGÖL), but was also chairman until 2000.
His successor, Dr. Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein, chairman of the successor group, BÖLW, founded in 2002, honours the role of the deceased in the design of the European eco-law: "Under the chairmanship of Freiherr von Ledebur, AGÖL has had a major influence on the design of the EU's organic regulations and thus the legal framework, which for the first time defined organic farming and organic food processing throughout the EU." His achievements were honoured by, among others awards, the Professor Niklas Medal in Silver, the highest award of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
Source: bio-markt.info