The smallholder farmers of indigenous cultures seek to live in harmony with the earth. Biodynamic farming is for them a way of bringing together tradition and innovation to achieve a unity of earth, humans and cosmos.
Farming nurtures human beings. As the world population is growing, the number of people working in agriculture is going down. Biodynamic farming has been trying for a hundred years to offer meaningful and attractive work contexts and to develop solutions for the challenges of our time.
Many people are familiar with Demeter as a brand name but they don’t necessarily know what it stands for. A new magazine – ‘Living Farms’ – published by the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum illustrates the Demeter principles and how they are applied around the world.
Agriculture nurtures human beings, fosters the earth and creates culture. Rudi Bind and Ueli Hurter explore this theme in their book ‘Biodynamic!’ on the ‘birth of biodynamic farming at the beginning of the ecological movement.’
Biodynamic agriculture was initiated a hundred years ago, in 1924, pioneering the eco-movement. Today, its dedication to healthy soil and food also provides impulses for a healthy social life. The method is implemented by both smallholders and large biodynamic enterprises.
Biodynamic farming produces food of high nutritional quality. Studies prove this to be measurable beyond subjective factors such as taste. The Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum will discuss biodynamic food quality at its online conference.
Manfred Klett is a farmer and he sees farming as the art and science of relations. The living relations in agriculture are the key to promoting the living beings intrinsic to them. Farming thus becomes a culture-building impulse.
Biodynamic farming is proof that agriculture without pesticides is possible. Intro-duced a hundred years ago, it is by now even applied to demanding cultures such as fruit, cotton, wine, coffee and bananas.
Eating good quality food improves health while malnutrition can lead to illnesses such as obesity or type 2 diabetes. For nutritionist Jasmin Peschke food quality is connected with people‘s attitude towards soil, plants and animals.
In order to guarantee humanity‘s food supply we need plans for dealing with climate change, promoting biodiversity and improving soil fertility. Biodynamic agriculture works from multiple perspectives on a sustainable resilience by including the living world and the co-creating human being.
There is no such thing yet as an uninterrupted, transparent and sustainable supply chain. By using ‘impacTrace’ to investigate the impact products have on the economy, on culture, society and on the environment, ‘Economy of Love’ establishes their true‘ costs. Helmy Abouleish, one of the standard‘s initiators, is a partner within the World Goetheanum Association.
Farmers are under pressure: climate change with uncertain harvests, bureaucracy with time-consuming administration and a precarious financial situation lead to questions of meaning and survival. Biodynamic agriculture provides an approach to living with nature through a purpose and joy in work.
Loss of soil and biodiversity, pollution of water resources and challenges from climate change cast doubt on the agricultural practices currently in use. The Living Farms research project presents biodynamic places that are in search of alternatives, starting with the Garden Park at the Goetheanum.
Our spending habits determine how the world looks, because the purchase of a product supports the conditions under which it is produced. Environmentally- and climate-friendly production results in food that tastes good: flavour, health and protecting the environment are all linked.
Biodynamic agriculture produces high quality food and aims to contribute to the further development of agriculture. The brochure ‘Evolving Agriculture and Food’ documents the contributions to the first conference on biodynamic agriculture at the Goetheanum.