I’ve been curious about my draw over the past few months to the beautiful local farms where I now live in Berkshire County, MA, and nearby Columbia County, NY. I’ve become fascinated with them, what they do, who’s working them, how they’re sustaining themselves. I’m like a bee around a flower now with the local co-ops that have emerged out of these local farms. I love examining (and eating) the local produce, visiting cows being milked, and getting a sense of the loving and often spiritually evolving communities that are sprouting around all of this activity.

What is this personal migration of my attention all about?

A friend recently told me that Starhawk said she ended up landing with permaculture because getting deep into the earth was the natural destination of goddess veneration for her. I feel somewhat similarly, although I’m currently in the process of discovering at what level I’m meant to engage: as a spiritual cheerleader and teacher, customer, volunteer, home gardener, farm worker? I’m just letting the Faeries lead me.

Over the Nov 20 weekend, this meandering journey drew me to Lake George, NY, for the 2019 Biodynamic Conference, with its theme of “Creating Relationships – Earth, Cosmos, Community.” It was incredibly inspiring to see a whole global community that’s getting down & dirty with environmental healing. Some 600 folks attended, and they were a great mix of genders, generations, and cultures.

What’s Biodynamic Farming?

As I see it, biodynamic farming is to organic farming what holistic healing is to integrative medicine. It amps the whole farming enterprise into the spiritual dimensions while being very practical and results oriented.

Biodynamic farming emerged in Europe from visionary teacher Rudolph Steiner’s agricultural lectures of 1924. Organic farming emerged in the 1950s after American J.I. Rodale popularized the term. Both methods share a focus on soil health, condemn the use of synthetic chemicals, and encourage the use of compost, cover crops, and holistic pest & weed management.

Biodynamic farming, however, reduces imported organic fertilizers and pesticides by creating a nutrient-rich soil component called “humus.” The signature of biodynamics in this regard is the use of “preparations,” homeopathic dose applications to the soil of specific herbs designed to bring nutritive life and balance to the crops that will grow from it.

While organic farming is crop focused, biodynamic farming is focused on the entire “farm as organism.” Because Steiner was also a clairvoyant and could see the elemental beings, it also acknowledges and honors the subtle spirits involved with plants and land.

In short, biodynamic farming is an intentional healing process that treats the earth like a naturopathic or homeopathic doctor would treat the human being, as a living organism with wider connections. All of this results in quite tasty produce and happier animals. In short, it is one of many ways we can address our ailing earth and the calamity of our climate crisis.

Expanding Steiner

I was quite impressed with the several keynotes & many workshops that were offered at the conference, and I highly recommend you check out the lineup & recordings HERE.

The Biodynamic Association is gathering more & more young people to its leadership, which means that it is looking to redress some of the limitations of Steiner’s views & bring the entire enterprise more fully into the 21st century. Specifically, it is making efforts to become far more inclusive of indigenous understandings of farming, and of the offerings & needs of people of color in this arena.

I would add that biodynamic farming could benefit from a bit more feminist consciousness. For example, they might want to explore the documented history of agriculture as having been originally in women’s hands, and this could include consideration of how to use menstrual blood in the preparations, something that women once did. I brought this up in a few groups, and though it didn’t spark discussion, several people came up to me afterward intrigued by the possibilities.

I am enjoying the open space & small-town quality of the areas in & around where I live, and I am gratified to see so many people becoming part of our environmental solution. There’s something infinitely comforting about knowing that our local regions are increasingly able to supply for our local food needs. Clearly this is a work in progress, but I salute those who are actively engaged in it.

And I thank the Faeries for leading me on this path.

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