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.
Biodynamic projects give small farmers and their families access to food through self-sufficiency, promoting self-reliance and sustainable food systems along the way.
A study on the Biodynamic Movement and Demeter in Nazi Germany describes the proximity of the biodynamic movement to the Nazi regime, even though the movement never adopted any central Nazi ideologemes such as antisemitism.
On 1 February at 14.00 hrs, the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum invites you to an media roundtable about agriculture as a cultural impulse, with Helmy Abouleish, Nadia El Hage, Vandana Shiva and Nathaniel Williams, chaired by Jean-Michel Florin, co-leader of the Section.
Climate change causes droughts, flooding and crop failures. The Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum sees a possible option for action in the idea of Rudolf Steiner‘s biodynamic farm organism. One feature of this is starting from the individual conditions of a region.
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.
Biodynamic agriculture has listened to the climate concerns of the young people and the young people trust that they are being heard. Both will pool their strengths and experiences for the digital conference ‘Breathing With the Climate Crisis’.
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.
The Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum has set itself the aim for everyone to be able participate in the biodynamic agricultural and food culture and help to develop it. This assumes access to high-quality seed, a sound training and an environment that enables organic agriculture.
The Limbua Macadamia Group started off as a pioneer in establishing small-scale farming cooperatives. In the video series ‘Living Farms’, Lin Bautze (project leader) and Philipp Wilson (camera) from the Goetheanum‘s Section for Agriculture explain the group‘s biodynamic approach.
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.
The research results show that biodynamic agriculture has an influence on many fields of life – it contributes for example towards improving food quality, advancing animal well being and stabilising the climate.