When you talk to Hannes Lichtmannegger, his enthusiasm, his visions, and his ideas are practically tangible. What drives him are topics such as appreciation of food and respect for animal life. He knows all the farmers and farms personally from where he buys sheep, calves, and pigs.
Whether at the Ministry of Agriculture or at schools and universities, Hannes Lichtmannegger wants to enlighten and inspire. For him, the price must not be the decisive criterion. But if consumers do not know the context because they are not well informed, that is exactly what happens: the price drives the decision. Hannes Lichtmannegger can get into a rage when he thinks about it: “Milk calves scream so much because they are hungry and actually need ‘solid food’, i.e. roughage in the form of grass or hay, from the second week of life at the latest. But they are denied it until they die so that the meat remains white for consumers. And death is then a release from their short, five-month life”. The hotelier shows in his own business that it can be done differently. The veal purchased from agricultural partner farms is not completely white, but pink and tastes even better. It comes from species-appropriate husbandry and the calves live with their mother and reach an age of about seven to nine months.
Animal welfare and indigenous breeds
Hannes gave the initial push for the reintroduction of breeding indigenous species and breeds, such as the black Alpine pig and the Augsburg chicken. These animals can be saved from extinction while focusing on sustainability and species-appropriate husbandry. “A broiler chicken has a life expectancy of 30 days, an organic chicken of 80 days, but our Augsburg chickens live for a whole 11 months.”
Hannes’ personal credo is “Leaving a future behind”. This embodies his conviction that only a sustainable combination of agriculture, processing, trade, gastronomy, and consumers can be a good basis for the future. It’s all about creating a “grandchildren’s economy” and how we will pass the world on to the next generation. The fourth generation, namely his daughters Stephanie and Katharina, are already working in the business.
