Field100: A little piece of a better world

Dr. Schär
About us
Field100: A little piece of a better world

Published 05/17/2022

Field100: A little piece of a better world

Making nutrition inclusive and enjoyable for everyone while promoting minor crops – that's what Dr. Schär has been striving for, for the last 100 years. To celebrate our 100th anniversary, we've launched Field100. Our mission: to create one of the most biodiverse fields ever cultivated, with 100 different crops – all in one field – thanks to 100 years of Dr. Schär expertise.

This means that, in close cooperation with seed banks such as CropTrust and Genebank Tyrol, we have carefully selected 100 diverse plant varieties that can adapt to the specific conditions of the field in the South Tyrolean Alps: Thus, local oats and buckwheat grow together in harmony with Nepalese amaranth or quinoa from the Andes – right “on our doorstep”.

Field100 is our commitment to champion biodiversity – today and in the next 100 years.

Off to the outdoors: A virtual tour of Field100

We invite you to visit our field and become part of our initiative. This is done quite easily online and there is much to discover: From anywhere around the world, anyone can easily join Field100 through our virtual assets, such as videos from the field throughout the seasons. Admire the wealth of plant diversity in full bloom or lend us a virtual helping hand when it comes to harvesting per video.

Our goal is to educate young and old about the importance of biodiversity in agriculture and to advocate for more plant diversity and fewer monocultures.

There is a lot going on in our field with 100 different plant varieties. This chart helps to get an overview of what is currently to be seen at Field100.

Promoting biodiversity – now and in the future

Biodiversity plays a crucial part in providing food security for a growing world population.
Yet, it’s disappearing at a rampant pace and scale. Already today, 40% of plant species face potential extinction.

As a family-owned company in the heart of the Alps that thinks in generations, we are committed to protecting the world we live in. With projects such as Field100 and our commitment to sustainability, particularly with regard to agriculture, we are promoting biodiversity.

We actively add value to society and take socio-ecological responsibility for the people and our planet. The future we envision is to grow together to create a better shared future for all of us.

Cultivation & Conservation

With Field100 we’re cultivating rarely used and traditional genetic resources. At the end of the project, we will donate the harvested seeds to the gene bank of the Laimburg

Research Centre to "refresh" their inventory and preserve them for the future.

Furthermore, our researchers and the experts at the Laimburg Research Centre are working closely together to find answers to essential questions about alternatives to widespread monocultures, the climate resistance of crops and the future of agriculture.

Here you can find out more about the questions we’re exploring with Field100.

The Variety of our Crops

Some seeds grown on Field100 are over 100 years old, others are still used today. Some are from the region, others from all over the world. To aid pollination, we’re growing an array of wild flowers around the field, making it yet more diverse and even more beautiful.

Field100 gives us a great opportunity to observe the development of different plants that might harmonise particularly well and benefit from each other.

Here you can find out more about some of the various plants in Field100 and in our Schär products, as well as their health benefits on your diet. The most important flours we use for our European production are rice, corn, buckwheat, millet and sorghum. All of them originate to 100% from our ‘filiera accompagnata’ (accompanied value chain).

Commitment to a sustainable Future

In close cooperation with our partnering researchers, farmers and millers we accompany our products from the field to the plate. These partnerships are what distinguish our filiera. For the cultivation of our crops, we only choose areas where the plants occur and thrive naturally. In recent years, we have built up a network of selected farmers and producers that stretches from Spain to Poland, but has its focus in northern Italy.

Therefore, we know that nature has a direct impact on the quality of raw materials. That’s why our products can only be as good as the environment in which they grow. We consider it essential to protect this habitat - for nature, safe food and human health. That is why we have set high sustainability goals for ourselves and want to contribute to a better and more sustainable future by 2030.

Here you can find out more about our sustainability goals for more biodiversity, more sustainable product packaging and a reduced carbon footprint. More information on our filiera, you can find here.

Field100 through the seasons

Wouldn't it be great to be able to watch Field100 from anywhere in the world? This time-lapse video has made it possible for everyone. Make sure to watch it and see how Field100 has changed through the seasons.