Martin Ott

Mr. Martin Ott

Martin Ott, born ( 18.6.1955 ) grew up in Zurich.

After the Rudolf Steiner School and the Matura he trained as a primary school teacher. Later he learned the agricultural profession up to the master craftsman's examination and from 1981 onwards he built up a social therapeutic farm in the Zurich Oberland with his second wife.

From 1987 and for 11 years Martin Ott was a member of the Zurich cantonal council and for six years of the municipal council in Bäretswil.

In 1998 Martin Ott joined one of the largest and most versatile farms in Switzerland, Rheinau, where he was involved in the development of a highly regarded socio-ecological project. Among other things, he took over joint responsibility for the large farm and later for other emerging farms, such as Sativa Rheinau AG, Fintan Fünf, and Hans und Wurst Naturmetzg GmbH, etc.

Martin Ott has been a member of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Board of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture in Frick since 1992 and has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees since 2007. The FIBL has developed into the world's leading research institute for organic agriculture, also under its presidency.

As a musician, Martin Ott has been performing on many small stages in Switzerland with his brother Andreas since 1986. With the group Valerian, a song and racket group, several sound recordings have already been made.

In 2012 Martin Ott became known as the author of the book: "Cows understand".
The book was in the bestseller lists for a long time. The success and the resulting expert and lecture activity had expanded so much that Martin Ott ended his practical agricultural work in Rheinau in autumn 2013.

At the same time he took over the management of the biodynamic farmer training in Switzerland and together with farming and governmental partners he built this up into a new biodynamic agricultural school in Rheinau.

Martin Ott also worked for many years as managing director of the Gen Au Rheinau association, which is politically and professionally committed to the promotion of organic plant breeding. In this context he has also been intensively involved in the development of the "Rheinau Theses on the Rights of Plants" and the book "Beyond the Leaf Margins" in collaboration with Florianne Koechlin and others.

At the end of 2015 the book "Understanding Bees" was published, so Martin Ott is also on the way to this topic.

In 2015 Martin Ott took over the farm of the monastery Schönthals in Langenbruck together with former students of his education in a long-term lease. The much-acclaimed project, in collaboration with an art foundation, aims to bring biodynamic agriculture and modern art closer together in an aesthetic way.

Martin Ott is married to Annigna Ott- Grob, has four grown-up children and five grandchildren and lives in Uerschhausen in Thurgau.