4.5 Research question 4. Interaction within the AIS
4.5.5 Enterprise domain
This section illustrates the connections and interactions between the producer group or groups of farmers within the producer group, and the demand side, like food processors or food pro-ducers, and highlights in particular the novel products which originated from those interac-tions.
Berg Brewery: Two of the respondents stated that they were searching for a companion crop that could be marketed well and would be more profitable as oat or naked barley. Together with the advisor mentioned in the previous section and a nearby brewery, the Berg Brewery, they had the idea to to grow lentils intercropped with malting barley and started the cultiva-tion several years ago. Today a few more farmers deliver malting barley to the brewery where it is used to brew different types of organic beer. The two lentil growers mentioned that, due to the popularity of the Alb-Leisa lentils, the brewery use the fact that the barley is grown in mixture with the lentils, for advertisement purposes by providing the information on the beer bottles. The farmers pointed out that lentil-malting barley intercropping works well, but that the processing is a bit more challenging when compared to naked barley. The problem is that the husk of the malting barley can not always be entirely separated from the lentil, which can decrease the quality of the final lentil product. This topic was also brought up by L. Mammel, who stated that this cultivation system is a compromise between profitability and quality, and that the potential to extent the production of malting barley is limited. However, the collabora-tion with brewery is seen as promising and has recently be extended by testing a black naked malting barley as companion crop which may be used for brewing organic dark beer. One
farmer stated that brewing dark beer by using malting barley that is malted extra dark, creates substances that are suspected to be carcinogenic. Thus, the basic idea of brewing dark beer by using black malting barely is, that it would create a beer that is assumed to be more healthy.
Alb-Gold: Another promising collaboration started in 2014 with Alb-Gold a large regional pasta producer that has grown strongly in recent years. L. Mammel stated that he has de-veloped together with that company a new vegan variant of a very popular food from the re-gion. The food is called "Maultaschen" and is a stuffed pasta commonly filled with pork and vegetables. The new variant is filled with lentils from the producer group. The selling will start this year. It is notable that Alb-Gold uses the fact that the lentils for the vegan stuffed pasta come from the Alb-Leisa-producer-group, to advertise their new product on their web page.
Spread producer: L. Mammel stated that he is always searching for possibilities to widen the product range of his company, particularly in terms of new types of food based on lentils. He pointed out that he stays in contact with a small spread producer and together they work on the development of one or more lentil spreads. The idea is that the spread will be produced on behalf of the Alb-Leisa company which will then be sold over the existing marketing chan-nels.
Alb-Leisa-Pig: One farmer mentioned that he has a small organic piggery with traditional pig races, and in 2012 he had together with four other farmers who also keep pigs and together with a nearby butcher, the idea to use the broken lentils, which are a by-product of the pro-cessing and can not be sold as food, as fodder for their pigs. Now the pigs are fed with at least 10 % broken lentils, which accounts for about 50 % of the pigs protein ration. The idea was to utilise this by-product in the most reasonable and profitable way, to archive higher prices for their pigs and preserve at the same time traditional pig races. The farmer stated that they cre-ated that way a novel food, pork from the Alb-Leisa-Pig, which is sold in nearby butcheries and restaurants.
The new foods, like the vegan stuffed pasta with lentils, meat from the Alb-Leisa-Pig or the dark organic beer made from black malting barely, provide good examples how the collabora-tion between the producer group and other food producers have stimulated novel ideas and the development of innovative food products in the region.
An overview of the innovation system of organic lentil production on the Swabian Alb is shown in figure 2., which contains actors, organisations and factors that supported the devel-opment of the Alb-Leisa-prodcuer-group and the organic lentil production. The arrows in the figure illustrate the interactions between actors in the AIS, as well as the mutual influence of the innovation process and structural conditions, institutional conditions and actors attitudes towards collaboration. The direction and the thickness of the arrows illustrate the direction of
the major influence and demonstrate the importance of the interaction or influence for the de-velopment of organic lentil production. Thick circles highlight actors or groups of actors that have been of particular relevance for the development of the innovation.
Figure 2: The agricultural innovation system of the Alb-Leisa-producer-group and organic lentil pro-duction on the Swabian Alb, with the initiator of the producer group W. Mammel (W.M.) and the com-pany owner L. Mammel (L.M.) at the centre of the producer group of lentil growers (LG). (blue circles: research domain; red circles: intermediary domain; yellow circles: enterprise domain; grey rectangles: supportive structures and conditions). Source: author, adapted from The Word Bank (2006).