On September 23, 2025, the EU Organic Awards were awarded in Brussels – awards for outstanding achievements in the European organic sector. The prestigious award for “best organic food processing company” went to a bakery for the first time: to us, to Joseph Brot.
Since our founding in 2009, we have pursued a clear vision: to revive and sustainably preserve authentic, 100% artisan baking. With breads made from original grain varieties, with time and respect for their origins. For us, bread should always reflect the specific diversity of a regional craft and grain culture as well as the regional variety of flavors. Only in this way can it regain its rightful place in society.
For centuries, bread was the most important cultural reflection of the regions. Each region had its own specific types of grain, which led to the development of different craft skills and uses. The uniqueness of a region and its diversity are manifested in its bread. This makes it all the more important to me to revive and preserve this diversity and to support small-scale farming families with their rare types of grain throughout Austria. — Josef Weghaupt
Preserving diversity together.
Today, we work directly with 24 farming families from seven Austrian states who supply us with 17 different rare grain varieties. Each of these varieties tells its own story — about the region, the climate, the people, and their soil.
This close collaboration has resulted in the launch of our “Ur-Gut” initiative. It creates agricultural nature reserves and protects old, micro-regional grain varieties that have long disappeared elsewhere. This creates diversity not only in taste, but also in our fields, in the soil, and in society.
Our goal is to actively promote greater diversity. Otherwise, we will lose the diversity of our grains, the diversity of our craftsmanship, and the diversity of our flavors. With every single field in which a rare grain variety thrives, we create an agricultural nature reserve, which means greater biodiversity. And that benefits everyone. — Josef Weghaupt
This award in Brussels is not a goal for us, but rather encouragement to keep going. It reminds us that it is worth placing values above growth — and that real change starts small.
We share this award with everyone who supports us: the bakers, the farmers, our partners and our customers who believe in what we do.
