AIV-menetelmä – suomalainen teknologinen järjestelmä

Authors

• Jarmo Pulkkinen

Abstract

The AIV Method - A Finnish Technological System

The article examines the invention, adoption, and diffusion of the AIV method with the help of Thomas P. Hughes’ technological system model. The AIV method was a fodder preservation method based on an artificial acidification of fresh fodder below pH 4. It was invented in 1928 by Finnish biochemist Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (1895-1973). This invention earned Virtanen the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1945. However, the diffusion of the AIV method was slow due to several reasons. For example, it required the creation of a large supportive infrastructure. Although its use increased considerably after the Second World War, the method was never able to revolutionise the cultivation of fodder and the feeding of cattle as originally envisioned by Virtanen. Virtanen and his collaborators also attempted to spread the method outside Finland. It did have some early success most notably in Scandinavia and the Netherlands in the 1930s and 1940s, but after the Second World War, the use of AIV silage outside Finland was mostly replaced by molassed silage.