A Matter of Life

A 90th anniversary is surely some thing to celebrate. So when the Biodynamic Association decided to hold a three-day conference to recognize the passing of 90 years since the oldest method of organic agriculture and horticulture came into being, I was delighted to join in.

A combination of keynote speeches and lectures, daily workshops and farm visits was promised from an experienced body of speakers, farmers, teachers and administrators all active in the movement. So I made my way to the Glasshouse College in Stourbridge, West Midlands, one of a number of learning centres run by the Ruskin Mill Trust, for a long Hallowe’en weekend of all things biodynamic.

I am a biodynamic farmer. My land in Devon is certified biodynamic and organic by Demeter, the international certification body that is licensed under EU law to give the mark of approval for these types of cultivation. I also do farm inspecting work for them. A big chunk of my life is taken up with this. I knew that a great deal of wisdom on the subject would be gathered at this event.

The biodynamic movement is growing. As the years pass attitudes change and eyes open. This method of land work and food production is no longer viewed merely as esteric, rather it is being embraced by a wider world that is able to acknowledge the need for an environmentally aware and sustainable approach to the systems that support us, primarily the soil. Perhaps the defining element of successful biodynamic farming is that it is a proven means of building and maintaining soil fertility.

This very subject was the reason that the farmers and landowners gathered together in 1924 to hear the words of Dr. Rudolf Steiner on the matter. The set of eight lectures he delivered to them in June of that year became known as

“The Agriculture Course’, the defining rock on which the biodynamic movement has been built. What came out of those teachings still forms the basis of biodynamic cultiva-tion. To celebrate the anniversary of that weekend was why we had gathered together.

Few people know more about this sustainable approach to agriculture than Patrick Holden, Patron of the Biodynamic Association. One of the early masterminds of the Soil Association (the oldest organic certification body in the UK after Demeter), and now head of the Sustainable food Trust, Holden runs an organic milking herd on his arm in West Wales and combines organic farming with food policy. As a young man he studied biodynamic agriculture at Emerson College in Forest Row. He speaks the biodynamic language and that of the wider organic community. It was to him that the Association turned to open the conference.

And it was the word language that stood out in his talk.

Holden’s standpoint is that both the organic and biodynamic movements must share with the world that their farmers, growers and gardeners are stewards of the earth and therefore the vitality that lives in plants and animals grown in this way.

It is bringing this to the public that is so critical at this time for the health of the land and ultimately our own health. The way to do this, he said, is to talk the language of others, to meet them where they are rather than trying to force them to understand what it is that we bring.

The need for this type of approach has forced the both biodynamic and organic movements to examine their narrative in recent times. And here again was another urging to continue in this vein. Holden talked of the importance of forging collaborative links with the food industry and how farming and conservation must learn to co-exist. There has rarely been a keener understanding of the importance of nature in our consciousness in the modern area. ‘This is not a moment to waste such enthusiasm because farming and food is in crisis – the direct result of an age when nature was informed by chemistry and not biology as it is now.

The opening of the conference in this way was a reminder that biodynamics remains a niche within a niche (organics), and that in order to thrive we must break free of these constraints in new ways.

It was no accident therefore that Friday night’s keynote speaker was Vincent Masson of Biodynamie in France. With his father their company makes the biodynamic “prepara-tions’, the raw material that sets biodynamics apart, and sells them primarily to wine growers in France. His presentation focused on the extraordinary difference the use of biodynamics makes to soil structure and root growth in vineyards that are almost entirely monocropped and where the soils are often poor.

Friedrich Wenz, a biodynamic farmer from Freiburg in Germany also produced images that showed similar achievements. I found it curious that both of these speakers, vastly experienced in the use of the biodynamic measures, chose to reinforce their worth. This indicated to me that the audience was not only made up of the biodynamic ‘family’.

There were others here – people with little or no experience of biodynamics but who have a shared belief in the importance of where our food comes from, how it is grown and how it affects our health and our planet. Here was the evidence that biodynamics produces physical results.

Also present at the conference were many young people, amongst whom there is a fervent wish to have access to land and to farm it sensitively. Ella Hashemi of the Groundspring Network spoke fervently of this desire amongst young would-be farmers and growers, tired of the rat race and the pursuit of wealth in an overcrowded marke Ella also works with the Biodynamic Land Trust, whose Di rector, Martin Large spoke about the need for land to come under organic and biodynamic cultivation and be held in perpetuity in this way. The Trust has been had great success with projects such as Fordhall Farm in Shropshire, Rush Farm in Worcestershire and has successfully raised enough money to begin a new farm venture, Huham’s Farm, in Dartington, South Devon.

The days were structured around morning presentations by keynote speakers followed by workshops over the three days for all to join in. This was well thought out as it meant that the cumulative block of time allowed for strong learning. My choice was Astronomy with Ian Bailey, the study of which is a critical part of biodynamics. Other workshop choices ranged from food quality, research, sustainability, seeds and livestock. All with a biodynamic flavor.

On the Saturday there were two farm visits on offer to established biodynamic farms in the area, Rush Farm and Vale Head Farm. This gave all the delegates the chance to experience the lives of the people and the animals on a biodynamic farm. Our day finished off with a delicious feast and an athletic ceilidh.

Finally on Sunday morning it was the turn of Gunther Hauk of Spikenard Farm in West Virginia. In a time of crisis for bees the bee man spoke with wit and wisdom of the importance of caring for this most important of creatures, just as we should care for ourselves through the food we eat and how we are in the world.

All conferences have different flavours and this one was unique again. The practice of biodynamics is one small strand of what has become known as sustainable agriculture and yet it is a very important one, not least because it is the oldest type of organic farming practiced anywhere. Its supporters take it seriously, as they do the work of its founder Rudolf Steiner. These people are comfortable with biody-namics, appreciating both the spirit and the science embodied by the work.

And yet the sense at this conference was more than of merely a celebration for a 90th anniversary or a chance for friends in this world to get together. It was of something bigger than that. This gathering felt as though it was more about the need to approach the wider issues facing agriculture today. It was a chance for the biodynamic community to say we are still here and we can help’. In so many ways and over three highly enjoyable days that was precisely what it did.