School projects from Wesel triumph in the nationwide Echt kuh-l competition!

School projects from Wesel triumph in the nationwide Echt kuh-l competition!

A breath of fresh air is blowing over the schools in North Rhine-Westphalia: the nationwide school competition “Echt kuh-l!”, organized by Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Homeland, has produced impressive contributions. Pupils from the Wesel district were particularly impressive and were able to enjoy top places.

The competition, which is part of the federal program for organic farming, focuses this year on animal nutrition in organic farming. Around 1,500 students took part in this year's round and a total of 464 projects were submitted from all over Germany. Representatives of the schools in the Wesel district showed how innovative and creative they were dealing with the topic.

Successes from the Wesel district

Particularly noteworthy is the first place in age group IV, which Leon van Holt from the Xanten Municipal High School achieved with his project “The Organic Farmers' Sheet”. Class 10b of the Stiftsgymnasium also did well: their project “Animal nutrition in organic farming” secured them third place, while their explanatory video “Circular economy in organic farming” took fifth place.

Yuna Melissa from the municipal comprehensive school at Lauerhaas in Wesel, who received the research prize with her project "Algae!!! The super food of the future", is also a shining winner. Member of the Bundestag Sascha van Beek was enthusiastic about the success of the school projects and praised the students' dedicated engagement with important topics in the agricultural sector.

Diverse contributions to sustainability

In their contributions, the participants dealt, among other things, with feed analysis, the comparison of feeding systems as well as the development of quiz formats and interviews with organic farmers. This year's competition also had a motto that makes you think: "Animally good! - What goes into the organic trough?" This active engagement not only promotes knowledge about agriculture and nutrition, but also contributes to sustainable development, which is promoted within the framework of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).

The award ceremony and honors recently took place in Berlin, where the winners were honored by Parliamentary State Secretary Martina Englhardt- Kopf. The winners received the gold “Kuh-le Kuh” trophy as well as staggered prize money, which can range from 450 to 1,500 euros. The schools that came in second to fifth place were also honored and can look forward to receiving certificates.

It is clear to everyone involved: The “Echt kuh-l!” competition is not just a competition, but also makes a valuable contribution to education and understanding of the connections between agriculture, the environment and nutrition. This promotes future-proof thinking, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Addressing animal nutrition has a direct impact on animal welfare and product quality, which is important not only for agriculture, but also for consumers. The success of the competition speaks for itself and shows that there are creative minds at work in schools in the region who are intensively dealing with the challenges of modern agriculture.