Download - A beginner s guide to biodynamic farming
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO BIODYNAMIC FARMING
A "beyond-organic" approach to farming
The summer after graduating
from college, I went to Brest,
France as a “Woofer” (The
World Wide Opportunities on
Organic Farms is an
international movement that
connects volunteers with small
organic farmers around the
world). Every morning started
with the three men who ran the
farm pulling out a tattered,
mud stained booklet that they
would quickly scan, jot notes
on, and confer over. It was all
very mysterious to me, and when
I inquired I learned that this
farm used biodynamic practices,
and the booklet was a cosmic
calendar for farmers called the
Stella Natural. For every day
of the year the Stella Natural
looks at the position of the
moon, planets and stars to
dictate what should be planted,
harvested, or weeded on that
particular day to maximize the
plant’s health and
productivity .
At the time, the phrase
“biodynamic” meant little to
me, though it conjured up some
vague images of soil
worshipping, plant
personifying, and hippy-dom.
And it’s true that biodynamic
has gotten a bit of a
reputation; some know it for
its more unusual renditions,
such as burying a cattle’s
horn filled with manure in the
ground to promote soil
fertility. But the French
farmers I Woofed with were
practicing biodynamic not out
of spirituality, but
practicality; they believed
firmly that it would help them
improve the farm’s profits.
What is biodynamic farming?
The birth of biodynamic in 1928
marks the beginning of the
sustainable agriculture movement.
Any introduction to biodynamic will
mention its founder: Rudolf
Steiner, (also known for having
founded the Waldorf-Steiner
school). Steiner was a believer in
anthroposophy, or “spiritual
science,” and held to the
principle that everything – humans,
plants, water, the cosmic forces,
are all interconnected .
Under the encouragement of many
farmers that were concerned with the
growing unsustainable farming practices
around them, Steiner solidified the
guidelines to biodynamic farming in a
document called the Farm Standard.
These same standards are still used today,
and you can buy certified biodynamic
food bearing the Demeter Biodynamic
seal .
The Guidelines of Biodynamic farming
Biodynamic farming practices aim to
imitate the conditions found in nature.
The word itself means “life (bio)
processes (dynamics).” This largely
means that biodynamic farms function
like the closed loop systems found in
nature, where everything plays a role
and there’s no such thing as waste. The
end goal is to make the farm a
completely self-sufficient system that
requires no outside inputs (aside from
(labor
What does this look like in practice?
Biodynamic farms highly emphasize
maintaining biodiversity on the farm
and around its periphery. A minimum
of 10% of the total farm acreage must
be set aside as a wildlife preserve, and
left as forest, wetland, etc…Perennials
(plants that return year after year)
must be used and interspersed with
annuals (plants that die after one
season .)
The principles also outline the
requirements for maintaining soil
fertility; all nutrients in a fully
biodynamic farm should come from the
farm itself. Techniques include
integrating livestock into the farm for
manure, cover cropping using nitrogen
fixating plants, crop rotation,
composting, and preparing soil
amendments. These soil
“preparations” are nine different
recipes for concoctions to spray on the
fields or apply in small medicinal doses
to prevent weeds and pests and to
enhance soil fertility. Fermented cow
manure, powdered quartz and
horsetail are three examples of soil
amendments. It is perhaps these very
non-industrial agriculture materials,
along with the use of celestial
calendars that has made skeptics liken
biodynamic farming with “witchcraft ”.
How does this compare to organic
agriculture?
In the United States, the label organic
only means that certain synthetic
chemicals and materials can’t be used
on the farm. (Some people feel that
this list of prohibited substances needs
to be more stringent.) The organic
label says nothing about other aspects
of agriculture that have to do with
sustainability, such as biodiversity,
water usage, or soil preparation.
Organic agriculture does not
necessitate treating the farm as a
‘living organism’ that functions as a
closed loop .
What do the scientists say?
Scientific studies that have compared the
productivity of biodynamic farming to
organic and conventional farming seem to
find that though they have a lower overall
yield, biodynamic and organic farms are
more efficient at producing food than
conventional (measured in terms of farm
inputs to food outputs). And biodynamic
farms have the best soil fertility of the
three .
A 40-year study conducted by researcher
and biodynamic advocate, Maria Thun,
supports the theory that planting
according to the rhythms of the cosmos
makes plants healthier, stronger, and less
prone to disease .
Look for the biodynamic seal - particularly on wine!
Hopefully this introduction to biodynamic
has helped you understand a bit more
what that biodynamic label means when
you see it at the store. Wine is one product
that is increasingly bearing the
biodynamic seal; the number of vineyards
using biodynamic practices is growing
remarkably, particularly in France .
And once in the bottle, it turns out that
astral forces still affect the vivacity of the
wine. When Wine Tastes Best: A
Biodynamic Calendar for Wine Drinkers
indicates what day and even hour wine is
at its tastiest based on the cosmic
alignment
Official site:
Biodynamic farming