The development of agriculture

Agri­cul­tu­re has chan­ged a lot in recent years. The reasons for this are dif­fe­rent aspects, which we would like to focus on in the following.

Whe­re­as in the past many, regio­nal pro­ducts were purcha­sed in farm stores and spe­cial­ty stores, today’s purcha­sing beha­vi­or is cha­rac­te­ri­zed by the desi­re to make food shop­ping as fast as pos­si­ble. Con­su­mers want to be able to buy all the food they need in one place, usual­ly in lar­ge super­mar­kets and hyper­mar­kets. As a result of this chan­ge, only a few con­su­mers have a con­cre­te con­nec­tion to agri­cul­tu­re and food pro­duc­tion. Howe­ver, the requi­red volu­me of goods can­not neces­s­a­ri­ly be pro­vi­ded by small com­pa­nies and the­r­e­fo­re lar­ger com­pa­nies with huge are­as of land are incre­asing­ly asser­ting them­sel­ves on the mar­ket. The result: mass production.

The con­se­quence is that pri­cing poli­cy has also chan­ged signi­fi­cant­ly: The lar­ge com­pa­nies no lon­ger mar­ket their pro­ducts them­sel­ves but sell them in lar­ge quan­ti­ties to fac­to­ries at low pri­ces. The­re they are pro­ces­sed into final pro­ducts. Many of the remai­ning small busi­nesses are forced to sell their goods at low pri­ces as well in order to sur­vi­ve in com­pe­ti­ti­on. Often, they get into eco­no­mic dif­fi­cul­ties as a result.

The topic of export is also important. In recent deca­des, Ger­ma­ny has beco­me the worl­d’s third lar­gest agri­cul­tu­ral importer and export­er thanks to tech­ni­cal inno­va­tions, digi­ta­liza­ti­on and the ste­adi­ly incre­asing spe­cia­liza­ti­on of agri­cul­tu­ral ope­ra­ti­ons. Alt­hough the export of goods is often much more lucra­ti­ve for the manu­fac­tu­ring com­pa­nies, it also means that less food is left over for regio­nal sale at attrac­ti­ve pri­ces. Long and envi­ron­men­tal­ly dama­ging trans­port rou­tes are the result and pro­mo­te cli­ma­te change.

The­se trends in agri­cul­tu­re lead to ano­ther chan­ge: con­su­mers no lon­ger know whe­re and how food is actual­ly pro­du­ced. Lar­ge-sca­le pro­duc­tions offer no insight into their pro­duc­tion methods and have not­hing to do with manu­al labor. This makes it dif­fi­cult to under­stand what exact­ly is pro­ces­sed in the finis­hed pro­ducts and what ends up on our pla­tes. Hard supri­sing that con­su­mers are incre­asing­ly deman­ding infor­ma­ti­on about the ori­gin and pro­duc­tion of their food. In addi­ti­on, within socie­ty the topics of healt­hy and balan­ced nut­ri­ti­on and awa­re­ness of health and well-being are incre­asing­ly forth­co­ming. Mass pro­duc­tion stands in con­tra­dic­tion to this.

With our approach, we want to rever­se the trend in agri­cul­tu­re and focus on regio­nal pro­duc­tion that is clo­se to the end con­su­mer and thus pro­vi­des the con­su­mer with a direct link to the fish as food. In addi­ti­on, with the SEAWATER Cube we want to increase the attrac­ti­ve­ness of aquacul­tu­re. The sys­tem pro­vi­des far­mers with an oppor­tu­ni­ty for diver­si­fi­ca­ti­on in a small space and with litt­le effort. At the same time, agri­cul­tu­ral busi­nesses can mar­ket their fish in our con­cept in a self-deter­mi­ned way – for exam­p­le in their own farm store, at the mar­ket, via an online store or at restau­rants in the regi­on. If requi­red, we pro­vi­de sup­port for this.

In sum­ma­ry, our goal is to pro­mo­te sus­tainable, com­pe­ti­ti­ve agri­cul­tu­re and to rai­se con­su­mer awa­re­ness of high-qua­li­ty and regio­nal food.