BIODYNAMIC APPROACHES IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
J Raupp
INTRODUCTION
We often experience that people expect something absolutely different, something very unusual or even strange when the conversation turns to biodynamic agriculture. Some people suppose biodynamic agriculture is like a cow with four horns and two wings or biodynamic farming relies solely on spiritual forces without looking at fertilization and plant protection techniques.
You will probably be disappointed if you have a similar expectation now for my contribution. Biodynamic approaches in R&D do not mean that we do everything completely different from the rest of the world. We share many experiences, habits and views with the other types and groups of organic farming and share many research topics and methods with the general scientific community. As the biodynamic fraction is the oldest part of the organic movement, some habits and views might have been developed first by this group but are not used by them exclusively.
However, it is indeed true that biodynamic agriculture has some characteristic aspects of farming, nutrition, etc. that are intrinsic to and found only in this agricultural method. From these particular aspects, specific problems concerning research and development may arise. Therefore, specific tools or approaches have been developed and must be developed for these problems. This is an on-going process that has not yet come to an end. My intention now is to describe some of these particular aspects of biodynamic agriculture from my personal point of view and their consequences for R&D.
With regard to the expectations I mentioned at the beginning, please consider that some of the consequences that I point out may also concern organic farming or agricultural research in general, at least in a similar or transformed way.