Visit the Peppermint Farmers
Mohamed Zakaria
Farmer in Wahat Oasis
Mohamed Zakaria is a farmer of the Sekem desert farm in Wahat. before he came to the Wahat farm, he was involved in the teaching program of the Sekem school, near Cairo. He has completed training in rhythmic movement (eurythmy) and is now able to combine these qualities optimally with his profession as a farmer. He engages in creative and artistic exchange with his colleagues alongside his work.
Mostafa Saber
Farmer in Wahat Oasis
Mostafa is a young engineer who came to the Sekem Wahat farm to learn more about sustainable and biodynamic agriculture. Before he came to Wahat, he worked in conventional agriculture for several years, but soon realized that this was not a future-oriented approach. Mostafa joined the Wahat farm in 2019 and discovered his passion for organic and biodynamic agriculture.
Amr Sabahy
coordinating farmer in SEKEM
Amr Sabahy has been working in Sekem since 2006 and is the coordinating manager of all Sekem agricultural farms. The long experience of agricultural work on Sekem’s desert farms has shown him that biodynamic agriculture on desert soil is a raw model of a holistic sustainable success, which he would like to show to the outside world.
Processing
FROM THE FARM TO PROCESSING
The raw chamomile plants from the field are transported directly to the first processing stop, which is the company Lotus. Before drying and cleaning, the plants are kept for 14 days in quarantine until all results from taken samples are meeting the high standards of Economy of Love, Demeter and Organic. Once all tests have been finished successfully, every product has to be CO2 contaminated in order to get rid of small larvae’s, insects and other microbiological risks. In the next phase the plants are cleaned and the pure chamomile leaves are sieved and cut in the right size. The processed chamomile is now ready to be filled into 20Kg paper bags. Sewn up and loaded onto Euro pallets, they are leaving the Lotus company.
TRUE COST OF CHAMOMILE
Comparing prices of food products always show that conventional goods are cheaper than organic products. However this price does not reflect on the whole impact that food and agriculture activities have on natural capital. These costs are called externalized costs and are normally not communicated and visible for the end consumer.
WHY TRUE COST ACCOUNTING?
Economy of Love is calculating the True Cost of each product to reflect the impact we have on natural capital. The impact you have is calculated in monetary terms, so that “hidden costs” of production, which were externalized in the old system, are made visible.
WHAT IS TRUE COST ACCOUNTING?
indirect costs
TRUE COST OF Chamomile
Logistics
THE WAY OF CHAMOMILE
The transport of Peppermint raw product is organized by the processing company Lotus. After the harvest of the Peppermint plants, Mohamed Taha Kasem, the driver of a small truck is traveling to the farm to pick up the raw Peppermint plants. After the transportation to Lotus, the plants are being processing in several steps.
Mohamed Taha Kasem is 31 years old and is responsible for picking up agriculture goods from farms all over Egypt.
Mohamed Ahmed is responsible for transporting the cleaned chamomile raw material from the Lotus factory to the Isis processing company.
Ahmed Helal is 38 years old and responsible to drive the finished tea products from the SEKEM processing center to the stores and logistic centers.
Location