Photo: C. Fischer

Bingenheimer Saatgut AG receives the German Sustainability Award in the Agriculture and Fisheries category for its decades-long commitment to the propagation and distribution of organic seeds. The company, in which SAGST is a major shareholder, has been providing important impetus for biodiversity, food sovereignty and sustainable change for decades.

The jury praised Bingenheimer Saatgut AG as a "courageous pioneer with vision" that takes social responsibility beyond its sustainable product portfolio. According to the justification for the award, it was "particularly convincing due to its deep-rooted and holistic commitment to biodiversity and organic farming" and "the combination of traditional variety conservation and sustainable, organic breeding".

The Software AG Foundation (SAGST) is linked to the company both ideally and economically: As a major shareholder, it holds around 40 percent of the shares in the public limited company - an obvious mission investment given the foundation's intensive work in the field of organic farming and biodynamic plant breeding in particular. "Seed-resistant varieties are not only the basis for biodiversity, but also of crucial importance for the future of the world's food supply - independent, biodynamic and intergenerational," emphasizes SAGST project director Peter Augustin. "As a foundation that has accompanied Bingenheimer Saatgut AG since its beginnings, we are grateful and proud that our joint commitment is bearing such visible fruit here. The award is not just recognition for a company, but a strong signal of the importance of diversity, partnership and sustainable change."

As early as the mid-1980s, farmers and gardeners began their first attempts to propagate their own organic seeds and breed varieties under biodynamic conditions. A central location for testing, processing and distributing them was established in 1988 in the Bingenheim community in the Wetterau region of Hesse. Bingenheimer Saatgut AG was founded in 2001 - based on the idea of seeing seeds as a cultural asset and preserving them for future generations. Today, the company offers over 500 seed-resistant varieties, more than 120 of which are bred using biodynamic methods. In cooperation with over 90 regional partner farms, new, climate-resilient varieties are developed in complex breeding processes on a biodynamic basis. Bingenheimer Saatgut AG thus embodies an approach to agriculture that places environmental awareness and cross-generational perspectives above short-term yield targets.