About us
Find out who and what is behind Gut&Bösel. How a former east german “Agricultural Production Cooperative” state run farm, in one of the driest locations in Germany became a place full of ideas and hopes.
Beyond Farming
Gut&Bösel stands for everything that takes place in Alt Madlitz. From our fields and forest, to the treatment of soil, to data collection and scientific study. Gut&Bösel embraces innovation in land use, forestry and research. We are working on a paradigm shift for agriculture on 3000 hectares in Alt Madlitz and beyond.
Our history at a glance
After several years as an investment banker and consultant in the agri-tech sector, Benedikt completed his master's degree in agricultural economics and returned to Alt Madlitz, in Brandenburg to take over a family-run 3,000-hectare farming and forestry business, from his parents.
The farm in Madlitz has suffered with very low rainfall for two arid summers in a row. It was at this time that Benedikt realized technology alone can not secure the future of farming. So he started investigating solutions. It was then that he came across the work of various pioneers of regenerative agriculture from all over the world
After the sale of his car and a few shares from his former life in banking give Benedikt the start-up capital he needs, he goes on to found the company "LandVision GmbH." It is through this company Benedikt implements early multifunctional land use models on the farm. He and his new team begin to establish the first agroforestry systems and the first 20 cows arrive in Alt Madlitz. By May of the same year, the agroforestry pioneer Ernst Götsch comes to visit for a workshop.
Benedikt meets Renke, a forester & arborist at an agroforestry workshop. It is Renke who later becomes his first permanent employee in the Landvision company and agroforestry planner. In the winter, they establish the first Syntropic Agroforestry System of the farm, with a focus on a wide variety of different fruits, such as figs and blackberries, and nut trees. Ernst Götsch visits in October for a second time. |
At a conference in Kiel, Benedikt meets Anne and Deacon. A couple who’d lived and worked in Berlin for a long time and were looking for a piece of land to fulfill their dream of creating a market garden. At the end of 2019, they moved to Alt Madlitz to start their CSA project on one hectare and created the dynamic market garden that is today called "Ackerpulco".
The beginning of our partnerships with ecover and Followfood. These provide financing for more agroforestry systems and our first forest conversion project.
We have established our first no-till agroforestry seeding system. Using this method we have sown 80% of seeds and planted only the mother seedlings. (This mother tree hypothesis predicts that the seeds growth is higher when it stays close to the zone of its mothers active roots.) In addition, we have converted our coniferous trees into a Christmas tree plantation and planted a deciduous pasture system. This silvo-pastoral agroforestry system is one through which our cows will be able to later graze on.
We have established the Finck Foundation at the beginning of the year with the aim of providing scientific support for our agricultural and forestry work, developing and researching resilient land use models, and promoting education & training.
We began the development of machines for agroforestry systems with Kilian and his team from the Allgäu region. Our collaboration with the renowned Kuratorium für Technik und Bauwesen in der Landwirtschaft e.V. (KTBL) starts.
We have planted another agroforestry system, a so-called Keyline system. This marks our first forest conversion project. Here we planted a total of 17.5 kilometers of tree and seed strips, sowed 1.5 million seeds, and hung over 250 nesting boxes for barn owls and other birds.
Get to know our team!
The Finck Foundation
Our partners
We are grateful for many great partners from the fields of economy, conservation, regional management, hospitality & retail – who support, promote and make our work possible.
