It is well known that NRW is a land of contrasts. While people in the Pott almost spit in each other’s curry sausages or kebabs due to the confinement, foxes and hares say goodnight to each other in the Münsterland, Teutoburg Forest or Sauerland. Of course, this does not prevent the Ruhrpöttler from seeing these regions as the landscapes of their longing. The green lungs of NRW are marketed accordingly. No village is left without the sign “Awarded with the plaque Our village should become more beautiful”. And of course all the hiking, jogging, mountain biking and bowling club routes, such as the Westphalian moated castles route, the Lippische Fürstentour, the Auf-zum-Herrmann-Weg, the Flora-Fauna-Teuto-Tour or the Rothaarsteig long-distance hiking trail, to name just a few of the highlights.
So far so good, if only it weren’t for the corn. Statistics have just come to light which show that the densest corn cultivation belt in Germany stretches from East Westphalia-Lippe to the Dutch border in western Münsterland. Corn kernels instead of grain. Up to seventy percent of green spaces are already planted exclusively with maize. And there is probably nothing more uplifting than walking, jogging or biking for hours through cornfields as high as a man’s head and appreciating their biodiversity. But that’s not all. This landscape belt also has the highest density of pig farms in NRW, followed by the highest concentration of chicken farms and so on.
The tourism industry should be completely excited about this and should be able to sense completely new target groups. After all, who wouldn’t have been waiting for such attractive offers as the Number One long-distance corn trail, the big pork belly crossover tour or the olfactory highlight of a chicken fattening perfume trail? And for the little ones, a round dance of curly tails, even though the piglets are supposed to have had them forcibly removed long ago. And to top it all off, the whole family can finally have a picnic at one of the tranquil slurry lakes or doze off with a few deeply inhaled puffs of regional biogas in one of the plants of the same name.
However, our Dutch neighbors just over the border in Westmünsterland have “successfully” shown us how the issue of maize monocultures can be solved in a different way. To show the “Moffe” how it’s done, the “Käsköppe” there simply ripped out their maize and potato plants and replaced them with vines that are particularly resistant to rain and sun. In no time at all, inconspicuous Dutch farm cottages have mutated into veritable chateaus that can hardly save themselves from tasting volunteers. However, the successful journal “Landliebe”, which is published in Münster, remains nobly silent as to whether or not the swill on offer is actually drinkable. Just as, out of love for the countryside, it is not aware of any windmill-covered horizons, no maize fields, no pigging out and no infernal chicken fattening odor, let alone all the curly tails docked without anaesthetic. That’s Dreamland NRW as it lives and breathes; how it laughs, sings, cooks, eats and drinks.