Article: Back to the roots

Tuesday June 2, 2009

By ALLAN KOAY

Biodynamic farming goes beyond avoiding the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers. It views the farm as a self-contained ecosystem.

IF YOU see a farmer getting up in the middle of the night to go outside and stare at the moon, it doesn't mean he is crazy. Chances are he practises the biodynamic way of farming.

The practice of watching the movements of celestial bodies, the burying of cow horns and others may seem mystical and strange but to biodynamic farmers, they all have a logical, common sense purpose, albeit spiritual in some ways.

Biodynamics is a part of what is known as anthroposophy, a spiritual philosophy founded by Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s. It is "an approach to science which integrates natural phenomena and the immaterial into the scientific study of human beings and nature."

In the early 1920s, Steiner was sought by a group of farmers for advice after they noticed declining fertility in their lands and animals. Steiner subsequently gave a series of eight lectures which established biodynamic farming.

Biodynamic farming is described as 'extreme organic' as it goes beyond avoiding chemicals – it treats the soil, plants and animals as a whole unit.

Biodynamics is described as "a method of farming that treats farms as unified and individual organisms, with an emphasis on balancing the holistic development and inter-relationship of the soil, plants, animals as a closed, self-nourishing system, where each farm activity affects the other."

Holistic development

"In anthroposophy, it's not only about developing the land and being good to the land and doing the right husbandry with the land, but at the same time, you also develop yourself," explained anthroposophist Hans van Florenstein Mulder, who was in town recently to give a talk on biodynamic agriculture. "It is discovering the spirit in yourself – who am I, what is my task in my life? These are all questions, and in that sense, the farmer needs to develop herself or himself as much as she or he needs to develop the land in a healthy way."

Organic farming, said Mulder, had been around for thousands of years before biodynamic agriculture came along in the 1920s. Our forefathers had practised it but along the way, humankind "lost" the method.

"Organic farming has to be rediscovered," said Mulder. "The difference now is that we have started to understand that our forefathers did it by instinct. They were in tune with the land."

Like organic agriculture, biodynamic farming emphasises the use of manure and compost and prohibits the use of chemicals on plants and soil. Compost additives and field sprays are made using fermented herbal and mineral preparations. These preparations are seen as the pillars of the biodynamic method, and are numbered from 500 to 508.

For example, preparation 500 involves filling a cow's horn with cow manure and burying it in the ground, 60cm below the surface, in the autumn to be recovered in spring. In a query during the talk on biodynamic farming, Mulder declined a lengthy explanation on the use of a cow horn, except to say that a cow is regarded as an important animal on a farm.

Some other methods in biodynamic farming that can be found on the Internet may sound a tad mystical to some. One such method, for combating weeds, is to burn the seeds of weeds over a fire kindled by weeds, after which the ashes of the seeds are spread over the fields, lightly sprayed with the clear urine of a sterile cow. The urine should be exposed to the full moon for six hours.

Mysterious enough? But there is also another idiosyncrasy in biodynamics – it recognises the influences of cosmic forces and astronomical phenomena on the land and crop. For Mulder, biodynamics is as practical as the knowledge that the moon influences the tides.

"What kind of spiritual influence has the sun on you from sunrise to sunset?" asked Mulder. "Does it only have a quantitative effect, or is it also qualitative? What does a human being do better in the morning, and what does he do better in the afternoon? We all know that in the mornings, we all like to be open to new ideas, and can be very studious. In the afternoons, we are inclined to do more practical things. It's the same sun, but it has a different quality in the morning and in the afternoon.

"The plants experience sunlight in a different way. So we can apply that to other celestial phenomena. I admit, we are at the beginning of a whole new knowledge of the universe. We still have a lot to learn, and that's what we research in biodynamics."

Mulder explained that if we see nature in just a material and physical sense, sans the spiritual context, then without a relationship with the land, we would only be a user with the propensity to abuse the land.

"In biodynamic farming we have a different point of view … there is a relationship between nature and the human being," said Mulder. "We are a part of the mineral world, the plant world and the animal kingdom."

Practitioner Dr Hans van Florenstein Mulder says biodynamics is a return to how our forefathers farmed by instinct.

The idea is to keep the land healthy, without the use of harmful chemicals and insecticides. For example, Mulder explained, natural insecticides can be used, such as the neem tree, which can be found in India. Also, seaweed sprays are used to strengthen plants and trees.

Mulder himself is an apple grower back home in New Zealand. He bought his land in the mid-70s. He started creating a biodynamic garden and orchard amid the barren grassland. Very soon, companies bought up the surrounding lands and grew apples using chemicals. Mulder had to decide whether to stay or to sell his land. In the end, he remained, and to his delight, saw the surrounding farmers gradually turning organic over the years.

"Maybe it was because of us, or maybe they started to see that what they were doing was unhealthy," said Mulder.

There are many other biodynamics success stories around the world. In Egypt, there is the Sekem community, established in 1977, which produces organic foods and textiles using biodynamic farming. Today it has a network of more than 2,000 farmers and numerous partner organisations.

"In Kathmandu, Nepal, there is a leprosy community of about 1,200 people," said Mulder. "They have a school and workshops. They do weaving and woodwork, and grow their own food organically. They have three farms now, and an eco-village. They use solar energy for cooking, and sewage for biogas.

"Then there is a community in Mindanao, the Philippines, of 1,500 small farmers. They grow mainly rice, and they have their own processing plants and marketing arm. They do their own research. There are also larger communities in India growing biodynamic cotton. These are just a few examples, and there are more and more coming."

Practitioners of biodynamics include some wineries in California and Alsace, France. Advocates argue that biodynamic farming enables a wine to express the characteristics of its vineyard – its terroir – better than other methods.

The living community of plants, soil and animals in a biodynamic farm is meant to nurture the land, restore its health after the abuses of industrial farming and celebrate the interconnections among humans, Earth and cosmos.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Go Green Live Green 2 June 2009