About Schrot & Korn

Schrot & Korn

Schrot & Korn is a German monthly magazine for organic food and sustainable living, distributed free of charge in organic food stores across the country. Published in Aschaffenburg, it is, by its publisher's account, the highest-circulation magazine in Germany's organic sector, with a print run of 550,000 copies reaching some two thousand organic retailers. Launched in 1985 as the first customer magazine of the young natural-foods trade, it combines recipes and nutrition topics with reporting on agriculture, sustainability, and conscious consumption. Since 2024 the title has been owned by bio markt gmbh, the publisher of the trade journal BioHandel.

Overview

Schrot & Korn appears once a month and is available primarily where its readers shop: in organic food stores and organic supermarkets throughout Germany, where it is laid out for customers to take home free of charge. A paid subscription and an e-paper edition serve readers who prefer home delivery or digital reading. The magazine's formula blends practical service journalism, seasonal recipes developed for organic ingredients, with editorial coverage of organic farming, food policy, sustainable lifestyles, and the people and companies behind the organic movement.

The readership is the core clientele of the organic retail trade: shoppers who buy organic as a matter of conviction, from long-time wholefood adherents to younger consumers drawn by climate and health concerns. The magazine speaks to them in an accessible, warm tone, positioning organic not as a niche for ascetics but as a pleasurable everyday choice. Its recipe sections are among the most-used features, with the website organizing hundreds of recipes by ingredient, from everyday vegetables to seasonal specialties.

The title's name carries a program. While "Schrot" suggests wholegrain, the publishers point to a second, historical meaning: in medieval coinage, "Schrot" denoted a coin's total weight and "Korn" the weight of its precious-metal content, and coins of true "Schrot und Korn" were the genuine, unadulterated pieces. The idiom passed into the language as a description of upright character, and the magazine presents its name as a promise of honest, trustworthy information.

History

The publisher behind Schrot & Korn, the bio verlag of Aschaffenburg, began in 1979 with magazines and books on nutrition and sustainability, publishing into a countercultural milieu where wholefood shops, food cooperatives, and the early organic movement were taking shape. In 1985 the house launched Schrot & Korn as the first customer magazine of the still-young natural-foods trade, with an initial print run of 20,000 copies.

The magazine grew with the organic market. By 2000 circulation had reached 500,000 copies, and by 2020 it stood at around 850,000, tracking the mainstreaming of organic food in Germany through the BSE crisis, the expansion of organic supermarkets, and the entry of discounters into the organic segment. The 2025 figure of 550,000 copies in approximately two thousand organic stores reflects both the maturation of the market and the competitive pressure on print media, while remaining far above any other organic consumer title.

A structural change came in 2024, when Schrot & Korn was taken over by bio markt gmbh, the company that also publishes the trade journal BioHandel and the natural-cosmetics magazine cosmia. The bio verlag describes itself as a company in employees' hands, with staff as co-owners, and presents that ownership model as an expression of its commitment to social and economic sustainability. The Aschaffenburg base, at Magnolienweg 23, has remained the operational home of the title.

Coverage and Content

Each issue combines several editorial strands. Recipes form the service core: seasonal, ingredient-driven cooking with organic produce, organized on the website into an extensive searchable database. Nutrition topics explain the health and environmental arguments for organic food in practical terms, while farm and producer portraits introduce the growers, dairies, bakeries, and manufacturers behind the products on the organic shelves.

Sustainability reporting covers the broader agenda: climate-friendly consumption, waste reduction, fair trade, biodiversity, and the politics of food and agriculture. The magazine follows legislative developments affecting organic farming and food labeling, and it gives space to the debates within the organic movement itself, from the standards of the organic associations to the challenges of scaling up without diluting principles. Lifestyle content on natural living, from household tips to travel, rounds out the mix.

The tone throughout is encouraging rather than hectoring. The magazine's self-description speaks of enjoyment and responsibility for the future, and its editorial stance assumes readers who want to do the right thing without being lectured. That positioning has been key to its longevity: it serves the convinced without preaching only to them.

Special issues and themed focuses punctuate the publishing year, going deeper on subjects such as seasonal produce, sustainable household management, or the organic pioneers who built the trade. The magazine also functions as a guide to the organic marketplace itself, helping readers navigate labels, certifications, and the growing range of organic private-label products. In that role it mediates between the ideals of the organic movement and the practicalities of the weekly shop, a translation task it has performed for forty years.

Organization and Ownership

Schrot & Korn is published by bio markt gmbh following the 2024 takeover, continuing the work of the Aschaffenburg-based bio verlag founded in 1979. The publisher presents itself as an employee-owned company committed to demonstrating that climate-friendly, fair, and ecological business practices are compatible with economic success. The reader service operates from Magnolienweg 23, 63741 Aschaffenburg.

The business model is built on the customer-magazine concept: the print run is financed substantially by the organic trade itself, with retailers and brands supporting distribution, while subscriptions and digital products add reader revenue. Sister publications under the same roof include the BioHandel trade journal and the cosmia natural-cosmetics magazine, giving the company coverage of the organic sector from the consumer, retail, and beauty angles.

Digital Presence

Beyond print, Schrot & Korn operates a full digital ecosystem at schrotundkorn.de, where the magazine's content is available online alongside the recipe database, a store finder for organic retailers, and subscription management for the e-paper. The brand is active on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, with TikTok announced as a forthcoming channel, and its digital offerings include newsletters, podcasts, and themed specials.

The digital strategy extends the magazine's community function: the social channels host exchange with readers on recipes, sustainability questions, and organic topics, creating the interactive layer that print cannot provide. For a free customer magazine, digital reach also serves the retail partners, driving store traffic and brand engagement. The combination of a half-million-copy print distribution with a growing online audience makes Schrot & Korn one of the most widely distributed food media brands in Germany.

The Organic Magazine's Role

Schrot & Korn has accompanied the German organic movement from its alternative beginnings to its present mainstream presence. For four decades it has been the reading matter of the organic shopper, explaining each new development, from the EU organic regulation to the rise of vegan nutrition, to an audience that wants to understand what it buys. In a media landscape where food journalism increasingly lives online, the continued monthly appearance of a print magazine in two thousand stores is a testament to the enduring power of the right medium in the right place: recipes and reassurance, free with the shopping.