Biodynamic Principles
A foundation of the Biodynamic method of farming is a Goethean observation of nature and its application to a farming system. This encourages a view of nature as an interconnected whole, a totality, an organism endowed with archetypal rhythm.
Biodynamic farming involves managing a farm utilizing the principles of a living organism. A concise model of a living organism ideal would be a wilderness forest. In such a system there is a high degree of self-sufficiency in all realms of biological survival. Fertility and feed arise out of the recycling of the organic material the system generates. Avoidance of pest species is based on biological vigor and its intrinsic biological and genetic diversity. Water is efficiently cycled through the system.
While agriculture takes nature to a state that is one step removed from wilderness, the wisdom of the farmer that guides its course can reflect these ancient principles of sustainability. The view of the farm organism extends beyond the fence line and includes the tangible and intangible forces that work through it. Examples include the climate, inherent wildlife of the earth (above and below the ground), the light and warmth from the sun and the more distant astronomical influences. Biodynamic agriculture attempts to harmonize all of these factors within a holistic, living farm system. The food that results is very pure and true to its essence and provides deeply penetrating nutrition that is essential to an increasingly unhealthy human population.
Biodynamic Practices
In day-to-day practice the goal is to create a farm system that is minimally dependant on imported materials, and instead meets its needs from the living dynamics of the farm itself. It is the biodiversity of the farm, organized so that the waste of one part of the farm becomes the energy for another, that results in an increase in the farm’s capacity for self-renewal and ultimately makes the farm sustainable.
This requires that, as much as possible, a farm be regenerative rather than degenerative. Consider carefully materials that are imported onto the modern day organic farm. Where do they come from? Often they can be tracked back to a natural resource provided by the earth. Examples include petroleum to move materials around, ancient mineral deposits, by-products of unsustainable agriculture-related industry, and the life of the seas and waterways. An important social value of Biodynamic farming is that it does not depend on the mining of the earth’s natural resource base but instead emphasizes contributing to it.
Demeter’s vision is to heal the planet through agriculture. That’s a bold statement, because the very act of farming worldwide is responsible for at least 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions- the leading cause of climate change. That is more than the transportation industry, and when you add in the distribution of food- from seed to shelf- it is the number one man-made contributor.
It is important to first understand how agriculture produces these high emissions. One way is through farming activity itself: ploughing fields releases carbon dioxide from the soil into the air. Industrial livestock operations maintain huge numbers of animals on confined feed lots that are force-fed hay and oats as opposed to grasses that these animals would forage if allowed to free range. This results in the emission of large quantities of methane. Conventional farming uses fossil fuels to make fertilizers, and when those fertilizers are applied to soil, they disrupt a plant’s ability to process carbon from the atmosphere and build soil. Agriculture also involves land-use changes: mono-crops replace biodiversity, forests are cut down, fragile grasslands turn to desserts. These changes alter the earth’s ability to absorb and reflect heat and light.
Fundamentally, too much of the carbon that was stored in the earth’s soil has been released through farming, changing it from a solid into a gas. Joined by methane and nitrous oxide, these “greenhouse gasses” form a shield between earth’s atmosphere and the sun, trapping the sun’s heat and warming the planet.
So the question becomes- how do we both reduce the amount of these greenhouse gasses we are producing, while pulling the carbon that has already been released back from the atmosphere and into the soil where it belongs? The answer, ironically so, is through farming: regenerative farming. And the best tool we can utilize to help us pull that carbon out of the air is already hard at work all around us, at least while the sun is shining: photosynthesis.
In the process of photosynthesis light energy from the sun is absorbed along with carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air by trees and plants. The oxygen is released back into the atmosphere, and the carbon is processed into sugar–transforming it from a gas to a liquid. Some of this liquid carbon is utilized by the plant, and the rest flows down into the root system, where it is released into the soil. Next to our oceans, soil is the biggest carbon sink on the planet.
And here is where things get really interesting. There is this beautiful symbiosis going on beneath our feet, where the liquid carbon transforms into a solid, and is taken up by the microbiota- bacteria and fungi- that make up healthy soil. In a handful of soil there are more microbes then there are humans on the face of the earth. This microbiota returns the favor–releasing minerals and trace elements that feed the roots, encourage worm activity and build soil by creating carbon-rich humus. Building soil-humus means the soil can then capture and store more water. The plant-microbial bridge delivers the trace minerals to our food that our bodies need to stay healthy and to ward off disease.
Conversely, the presence of synthetic fertilizers discourages plants from pulling the carbon they need from the air. That beautiful exchange between root and microbes is broken, and the composition of the soil deteriorates. Plowing fields does added damage. When soil loses carbon, it becomes hard and compacted, and its ability to absorb and retain water is dramatically impacted. You can’t get nutrient dense food from nutrient deficient soil.
This understanding is awakening our scientists, environmentalists, and food advocates to a fundamental truth: we cannot change the projectory of climate change if we don’t change the way we farm. The time has come to re-envision agriculture, not as a contributor to climate change, but as one of the remedies for it. The time has come to reimagine farming.
The answer to the future of farming may lie in its past. Demeter passionately believes that the Demeter Biodynamic Farm Standard offers a comprehensive agronomic blueprint for achieving these goals of regenerative agriculture and carbon sequestration. First conceived of in the late 1920’s as an agricultural method offered as a response to the industrialization of farming, and still to this day promoted through an international collaboration of more than twenty countries, this tried and true standard offers coherent principles and easy to follow, common-sense practices that encourage farmers to be ecologists. Carbon farmers, if you will.
Here’s how. The basic concept of Biodynamic agriculture is that the farm should be viewed as a self-sufficient, integrated whole. A living organism. Indeed, even the word “organic” comes from this biodynamic ideal. To create a farm as a closed system, solutions for that farm’s vitality- fertility, soil health, disease and pest control- must arise from the farm itself and not be imported from the outside. This self-reliance provides living proof of the concept of regeneration.
Biodynamic farming includes organic certification prohibitions against the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. But, maintaining that idea of the farm as an integrated whole, the entire farm must be certified (versus a particular crop or field allowed in organic certification). Farmers must devote at least 10% of total acreage to wilderness habitat, for example oak groves, waterways, and meadows.
Low tillage, if not no tillage, is encouraged. Integrating livestock, building compost, and utilizing cover crops generate on-farm fertility. Holistically managed cattle grazing develops perennial grassland. Disease and insect control is created naturally through botanical species diversity and predator habitat. Vegetative cover like legumes return nitrogen to the soil. The use of eight Biodynamic preparations made from materials found on the farm enhance soil, compost, and the very act of photosynthesis. All of these practices result in and depend on healthy and vibrant soil. Carbon sequestering soil.
Demeter remains the oldest ecological certification organization in the world. Its farm standard has always been a regenerative agriculture standard, and Biodynamic farms have been sequestering carbon for almost 100 years. But we want to do more.
Starting in mid-2017 Demeter certification includes soil testing for carbon sequestration. When an inspector visits a farm during their annual renewal process soil samples will be collected and sent to a lab for testing. This will provide a valuable tool to measure progress that a farmer is making in building biologically active soil, and allow Demeter to further assist the farmer on their path of continual improvement. Aggregating this data will give voice to power about the impacts of this regenerative farming system in our quest to help people reimagine farming. In doing so, we join with food advocates, food brands, savvy consumers, and regenerative farmers around the world in pursuing our vision of helping to heal our planet through agriculture.
One of the most frequently asked questions we get is how to read and interpret the Biodynamic calendar. Many accept and abide by the Farmers Almanac as it tracks the lunar cycle throughout the year, but Biodynamic farmers and gardeners go a step further and look at all of the influences in the sky: constellations, planets, moons, eclipses, comets and more. It can be a little daunting for those who aren’t familiar with the symbols that the calendars employ, and how these influences factor into decision making around planting, sowing, and more. So in the interest of helping out our Twitter friends (and please join us on Twitter if you haven’t already) we’re going to give our Twitter account a little lunar boost. Starting this month our Twitter feed will include updates about the Biodynamic calendar, providing our viewers with practical guidance about what they should be focused on from one week to the next.
Plants physically react to the astronomy in the sky the same way they physically react to the weather. Astronomy is weather just on a much larger scale. The sun has a different quality depending on the constellation in front of which it moves. Some constellations, as does the moon’s placement and planetary placement will bring about more dry influences, and others will bring about more wet influences.
The more familiar you become with the calendar, the better you can understand the influences, and plan to work with them, for better yields, harvests, processing, storage and over all more successful growing seasons. BD operations respect the soil as a living organism and so by accepting that there are more influences than the moon, the soil itself becomes a barometer for all these weather influences. Being able to look ahead to a better day for sowing or harvesting, means being able to plan ahead for a better crop management plan and a long term cadence for the farm itself.
Whether you use the Stella Natura calendar or the Maria Thun Biodynamic planting calendar, a grower will begin to utilize the principles that Maria Thun developed over 60 years.
Demeter’s vision is to heal the planet through agriculture. That’s a bold statement, because the very act of farming worldwide is responsible for at least 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions- the leading cause of climate change. That is more than the transportation industry, and when you add in the distribution of food- from seed to shelf- it is the number one man-made contributor.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations World Food Day was held on October 16, 2016, and their message is “Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too.” The FAO is calling on countries to address food and agriculture in their climate action plans, which will be addressed this month at the annual UN Climate Change Conference, COP 22, to be held in Marrakech, Morocco.
It is important to first understand how agriculture produces these high emissions. One way is through farming activity itself: ploughing fields releases carbon dioxide from the soil into the air. Industrial livestock operations maintain huge numbers of animals on confined feed lots that are force-fed hay and oats as opposed to grasses that these animals would forage if allowed to free range. This results in the emission of large quantities of methane. Conventional farming uses fossil fuels to make fertilizers, and when those fertilizers are applied to soil, they disrupt a plant’s ability to process carbon from the atmosphere and build soil. Agriculture also involves land-use changes: mono-crops replace biodiversity, forests are cut down, fragile grasslands turn to desserts. These changes alter the earth’s ability to absorb and reflect heat and light.
Fundamentally, too much of the carbon that was stored in the earth’s soil has been released through farming, changing it from a solid into a gas. Joined by methane and nitrous oxide, these “greenhouse gasses” form a shield between earth’s atmosphere and the sun, trapping the sun’s heat and warming the planet.
So the question becomes- how do we both reduce the amount of these greenhouse gasses we are producing, while pulling the carbon that has already been released back from the atmosphere and into the soil where it belongs? The answer, ironically so, is through farming: regenerative farming. And the best tool we can utilize to help us pull that carbon out of the air is already hard at work all around us, at least while the sun is shining: photosynthesis.
In the process of photosynthesis light energy from the sun is absorbed along with carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air by trees and plants. The oxygen is released back into the atmosphere, and the carbon is processed into sugar–transforming it from a gas to a liquid. Some of this liquid carbon is utilized by the plant, and the rest flows down into the root system, where it is released into the soil. Next to our oceans, soil is the biggest carbon sink on the planet.
And here is where things get really interesting. There is this beautiful symbiosis going on beneath our feet, where the liquid carbon transforms into a solid, and is taken up by the microbiota- bacteria and fungi- that make up healthy soil. In a handful of soil there are more microbes then there are humans on the face of the earth. This microbiota returns the favor–releasing minerals and trace elements that feed the roots, encourage worm activity and build soil by creating carbon-rich humus. Building soil-humus means the soil can then capture and store more water. The plant-microbial bridge delivers the trace minerals to our food that our bodies need to stay healthy and to ward off disease.
Conversely, the presence of synthetic fertilizers discourages plants from pulling the carbon they need from the air. That beautiful exchange between root and microbes is broken, and the composition of the soil deteriorates. Plowing fields does added damage. When soil loses carbon, it becomes hard and compacted, and its ability to absorb and retain water is dramatically impacted. You can’t get nutrient dense food from nutrient deficient soil.
This understanding is awakening our scientists, environmentalists, and food advocates to a fundamental truth: we cannot change the projectory of climate change if we don’t change the way we farm. The time has come to re-envision agriculture, not as a contributor to climate change, but as one of the remedies for it. The time has come to reimagine farming.
The answer to the future of farming may lie in its past. Demeter passionately believes that the Demeter Biodynamic Farm Standard offers a comprehensive agronomic blueprint for achieving these goals of regenerative agriculture and carbon sequestration. First conceived of in the late 1920’s as an agricultural method offered as a response to the industrialization of farming, and still to this day promoted through an international collaboration of more than twenty countries, this tried and true standard offers coherent principles and easy to follow, common-sense practices that encourage farmers to be ecologists. Carbon farmers, if you will.
Here’s how. The basic concept of Biodynamic agriculture is that the farm should be viewed as a self-sufficient, integrated whole. A living organism. Indeed, even the word “organic” comes from this biodynamic ideal. In order to create a farm as a closed system, solutions for that farm’s vitality- fertility, soil health, disease and pest control- must arise from the farm itself and not be imported from the outside. This self-reliance provides living proof of the concept of regeneration.
Biodynamic farming includes organic certification prohibitions against the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. But, maintaining that idea of the farm as an integrated whole, the entire farm must be certified (versus a particular crop or field allowed in organic certification). Farmers must devote at least 10% of total acreage to wilderness habitat, for example oak groves, waterways, and meadows.
Low tillage, if not no tillage, is encouraged. Integrating livestock, building compost, and utilizing cover crops generate on-farm fertility. Holistically managed cattle grazing develops perennial grassland. Disease and insect control is created naturally through botanical species diversity and predator habitat. Vegetative cover like legumes return nitrogen to the soil. The use of eight Biodynamic preparations made from materials found on the farm enhance soil, compost, and the very act of photosynthesis. All of these practices result in and depend on healthy and vibrant soil. Carbon sequestering soil.
Demeter remains the oldest ecological certification organization in the world. Its farm standard has always been a regenerative agriculture standard, and Biodynamic farms have been sequestering carbon for almost 100 years. But we want to do more.
Starting in January 2017 Demeter certification includes soil testing for carbon sequestration. When an inspector visits a farm during their annual renewal process soil samples will be collected and sent to a lab for testing. This will provide a valuable tool to measure progress that a farmer is making in building biologically active soil, and allow Demeter to further assist the farmer on their path of continual improvement. Aggregating this data will give voice to power about the impacts of this regenerative farming system in our quest to help people reimagine farming. In doing so, we join with the FAO, food advocates, savvy consumers, and regenerative farmers around the world in pursuing our vision of helping to heal our planet through agriculture.
“We must continually bear in mind that the human body is the tool of the spirit…. We can ask ourselves whether we make our bodies unfit for the execution of the intentions, aspirations, and impulses of our lives if we become bound by and dependent upon our bodies through an unsuitable diet.” Rudolf Steiner “Nutrition: Food, Health, and Spiritual Development”
In the Preface to the “Agriculture Course”, Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, German soil scientist and biodynamic advocate, recounts a fascinating conversation he had with Dr. Rudolf Steiner back in 1924, shortly before Steiner gave the agricultural course. They were speaking about the need for a deepening of people’s esoteric life and Pfeiffer asked him why people weren’t able to more fully develop their spiritual lives, despite their interest in doing so. Why did people have such a difficult time carrying out their spiritual intentions? Steiner answered: “This is a problem of nutrition. Nutrition as it is today does not supply the strength necessary for manifesting the spirit in physical life. A bridge can no longer be built from thinking to will and action. Food plants no longer contain the forces people need for this.”
Talk about “food for thought”. As a society we feel confident in our ability to measure the nutritional value of food, but have you ever considered that there may be more to it then that? Our concept of nutrition is based on our foods’ ability to impart health to our body, but what about its ability to strengthen our soul? In our culture’s singular focus on measuring calories, vitamins, fat, minerals, are we limiting our perspective and understanding of what true nutrition is? Should we expect more from our farming, and from our food?
Biodynamic agriculture considers the farm or garden to be a self-contained organism that exists in a larger framework of a living, dynamic cosmos. The aim is to work with those energies within the farm system in order to increase the health and vitality of the soil, the crops, the farm animals, even the farmer. But biodynamics was never just focused on agricultural techniques. It was conceived of as a new way of thinking about the connection between farming, nutrition, and our spiritual nature. Steiner gave much thought to the effect of foods on the whole human being- the physical, psychological, and the spiritual. He pointed out, way back in the 1920’s, that people “in our modern age” have increasingly lost the instinct for what is good or bad for them to eat. Steiner explained that in addition to the physical substances food provides for our nutrition, it also needs to provide vital forces for the development of our higher spiritual capacities, and acknowledged this to be a factor reducing people’s ability to make strides with a more spiritual nature.
Steiner spent his life thinking about the spiritual realities at work within the realms of nature and throughout the universe. He explored the inner nature of the human soul and spirit and their potential for further development. Steiner believed that history is shaped by changes in human consciousness, changes in which higher spiritual beings actively participate. In other words, we can’t as a society evolve until we ourselves evolve. Biodynamic agriculture was Steiner’s answer to how we can build the inner resources necessary for this important work. He taught us to think about increasing the vitality of the food we eat, in order to increase our own vitality, and in doing so be more equipped to build a healthy social order. Steiner wanted to nurture a path of knowledge so we are able to meet society’s deep and urgent needs.
Biodynamic food to feed your body and your soul. Nutrition that addresses the physical, the psychological, and the spiritual. Now that’s good medicine. And speaking of good medicine, be sure to check out our featured farmer Deb Soule of Avena Botanicals Herbal Apothecary and Gardens, who has dedicated her career to the healing power of plants. When we asked Deb if there is a connection between healing ourselves and healing the planet she said “I believe biodynamics offers ways to restore forces to nature that can help restore the overall health of our planet and support humanity’s potential to live as awakened and loving people.” Our thoughts exactly.
