This handout/these slides were presented at the 30th Annual Carolina Farm Stewardship Association by the Author. Please do not reproduce without the express consent of the authors.

1. The Philosophy of Biodynamic Agriculture:A Farm as a
Living Organism
Biodynamic Agriculture is a holistic approach that aims to generate an agricultural ecosystem/individuality that
operates as a self-contained system in its most holistic sense. As explained by Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, a student of
Steiner’s who introduced the Biodynamic method to the United States in 1938, the name Biodynamic refers to
“working with the energies which create and maintain life.”
Biodynamic farm management requires close attention to the living and dynamic interrelation of the constituent
parts of the agricultural system, rather than only concentrating on the individual parts in isolation fromeach other. A
critical aim of this practice is to provide necessary agricultural inputs out of the living dynamics of the farm itself,
rather than importing them from the outside. Such an approach to agriculture requires cooperation with living
systems archetypically inherent to the identity of this planet. Biodynamic farming involves managing a farmutilizing
the principles of a living organism. A concise model of a living organism ideal would be a wilderness forest, where
there is a high degree of self-sufficiency in all realms of biological survival. Fertility and feed arise out of the recycling
of the organic material the system generates. Avoidance of pest species is based on biological vigor and its intrinsic
biological and genetic diversity. Water is efficiently cycled through the system.
Such systems operate within an archetypal biological concept of “time” that is followed by the natural world on
Earth, such as the progression of the seasons, related weather patterns, sunrise and sunset, and the rhythmic
processes of growth and decay that result. A farm by nature is once removed from a wild setting, but the aim of a
Biodynamic farm is to observe and utilize the principles wisely inherent to such a setting. This biological timeframe
dictates how quickly a farm can reach a level of fine-tuned efficiency and maximum productivity. The local
biological networks that support a farmor garden can be intensified and accelerated to a degree, but the systemitself
cannot be pushed beyond its means without bringing in help in the form of imported materials. Such imported
materials are temporary measures with the ultimate goal of generating the agricultural sys tem’s ways and means
internally.
Approaching a farm or garden as a living organism involves four general and coexisting realms. These are the
mineral, such as the constituents of physical matter; the phenomenon of life that flows through the mineral—
essentially giving it form and expression, such as we see in the plant world; a sense of consciousness/self-awareness
that also permeates the living forms, such as we see in the animal world; and finally a sense of will and intent that
consciously works with the interrelation of all these realms. Human beings are one of the species on Earth that can
consciously mold the other realms with will and intention. The molding of a landscape in this manner is the ancient
art and science of agriculture. Thus, generating a Biodynamic agricultural systemis not unlike the relationship of the
conductor to the symphony or the sculptor to the clay. The human will and intent molds a living, nutritious
landscape utilizing holistic tools and practices that are ancient and highly evolved.
Merriam-Webster defines an organism as a systemwith many parts that depend on each other and work together.
Observation of the natural world reveals that this is indeed true and that the expansiveness of the connections
involved are not limited to synthetically created borders. Important in this regard is the use, and future evolution, of
the Biodynamic preparations introduced by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 (see below). In a sense their role is to keep these
wider connections grounded with the Earth, treating the Earth medicinally/homeopathically, not unlike a naturopath
would approach you or I as living organisms with wider rhythmic connections. In principle, a Biodynamic farm is
formed in the image of a living organism.

2. In your imagination of the scope of a Biodynamic farm, consider the images below
The first three photos are aerial views (increasing in altitude) of a Biodynamic farm in western Oregon . Within the
boundaries of this farm (circled) is a dynamic system complete with bio-diverse habitat (as forest, wetland, river
riparian, hedgerow, diverse cropping, and developed insectaries) and internal humus -based fertility dynamics
(livestock/composting manure, careful crop rotation, green manures). The development of this systemalso provides
the farm with its own crop nutrition, pest control, and water conservation inputs without having to import themon a
truck or in a bag. Instead of seeking this or that remedy for specific management problems, single inputs that address
numerous management concerns are implemented to more or less kick-start the biological wisdom that is already
inherent to the farm ecology. For instance, by implementing a fertility program to develop soil humus, water
management (by increasing the soil’s ability to hold water) and pest control (through balanced crop growth that
receives nutrition from the dynamic relationship between roots and soil life) are also addressed.
As one ascends skyward, it is clear that this organismwithin the fence line is itself part of a wider ecosystem. The
farm is part of the Douglas fir forest ecosystem that surrounds it. A myriad of birds, amphibians, mammals, and
insects move out of the surrounding forest and flow through the farm; some move in and contribute.
The next three photos carry the theme further. In the first, it can be seen that the farm is situated on the flood
plain of a river valley. On a clear night, the cold air from the highlands pours down onto the valley floor where the farm
resides and creates a chilly microclimate that is quite cooler than areas a few miles downstream. Next, that valley can be seen
in relation to the other drainages that shed water down the east slope of the Willamette Valley in western Oregon. The farmis
an element of an even broader systemthat drains copious amounts of water eventually back to the sea.

3. As the next images show, the farm and its valley are situated in the Pacific Northwest of North America, an
environment that is conditioned by the ocean to the west and the winds and weather it brews. A great river of air
ebbs and flows across the face of the North American continent-the Jet Stream. The farm, always a microcosm
within a greater macrocosm, is an element of the identity of Earth, herself a living organism with a cold top and
bottomand a warm middle. It spins,and thus the farm (and the farmer) contends with the forces of gravity.
Earth’s relationto themoon. Theplanet Venus viewed between Earth andSun. TheMilkyWaygalaxy, of which our solar system is an
element.
Earth is an element of a wider solar system. Astronomy tells us that Earth and its moon are in a rhythmic dance
with each other and also with other celestial bodies, circling the sun and each other. This dance goes on with the
utmost mathematic precision and predictability. The star that Earth and its comrades dance around is one of
countless others in a larger system, all a microcosm of yet a greater macrocosm, the Milky Way galaxy. And
galaxies abound in the universe.
And so it goes—everything is interconnected. A critical point in the explanation of Biodynamic Agriculture is
that even the tiniest aspect of an agricultural system, a seed or a bud for instance, contains the archetypal imprint of
the widest celestial sphere, essentially the infinite.