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