Biodynamic wine-crafting and the “spiritualization” of agroecology :
Case study from Switzerland
1. Introduction: How does Swiss wine-crafters spiritualize their agroecology?
Since Lynn White’s famous thesis on the religious roots of western techno-rational modernities
leading to current ecological crisis (1967), it has been largely alleged that religious/spiritual
actors, practices, values and worldviews are playing a significant role over nature conservation
and on ecological thoughts (Cf. Taylor 2016). However, current sociological literature has
mitigated the impact of the latest to effectively trigger and materialize sustainability projects
(for instance: Koëhrsen 2018 ; Becci&al. in review). In the case of biodynamic wine-crafting,
the distinction between worldviews and materialization of sustainable practices is nonetheless
strongly entangled. Practitioners have agency over their own domain, as well as direct care
concerns over a “domesticated” nature (vineyards).
In this presentation, I bring forth insights on how Swiss biodynamic wine-crafters are linking
spiritual ethos and sustainable practices in their profession. This question is particularly relevant
as biodynamic farming is an esoterically-driven agronomy1, historically related to Rudolf
Steiner, the founder of the anthroposophical movement. Biodynamics engages currently a
significant number of renowned wine-crafters into holistic views and practices over the socalled
“vitality” of their soils, plants and wines. This would apparently stand for a
spiritualization of the wine-crafting milieu, namely inserting references to the “selves” and to
“(super)sensitivity” in defining one’s personalized agronomy. Yet how does Swiss winecrafters
spiritualize their profession? As well, considering spirituality as a broad and loosely
defined notion (Ammerman 2012; Eisenmann&al 2015), what is then precisely spiritualized?
I respond to these questions critically and reflexively after having analyzed my empirical
material with a qualitative data analysis software (MAXQDA). The coding procedure enabled
me not to consider spirituality per se but as a contextually grounded category. In a way,
spirituality is actively related to specific preoccupations of the wine-crafting population. In the
first two following sections, I shall expose the broad context of Swiss wine-crafting, as well as
the main specificities of biodynamic agriculture. I then display some profiles of engagements
of practitioners I encountered on the field. This leads me to select features I could observe on
how spirituality-related discourses and narratives are expressed by wine-crafters. In conclusion,
I suggest that a two-fold process is occurring in the Swiss vineyards: on the one side, a
secularization process of the contents of biodynamic agriculture, and on the other an overall
spiritualization of agroecology and practitioner’s ethos.