Biodynamic agriculture was the first ecological farming system to arise in response to commercial fertilizers and specialized agriculture after the turn of the century, yet it remains largely unknown to the modern farmer and land-grant university system. The contribution of biodynamics to organic agriculture is significant, however, and warrants more attention. This publication provides an overview of biodynamic farming and includes additional details and resources on the specialized practice of biodynamic composting.<\/p>\n

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Biodynamic Principles and Practices<\/h3>\n

A foundation of the Biodynamic method of farming is a observation of nature and its application to a farming system. This encourages a view of nature as an interconnected whole, a totality, an organism endowed with archetypal rhythm.\u00a0 Biodynamic farming involves managing a farm utilizing the principles of a living organism. A concise model of a living organism ideal would be a wilderness forest. In such a system there is a high degree of self-sufficiency in all realms of biological survival.\u00a0 Fertility and feed arise out of the recycling of the organic material the system generates.\u00a0 Avoidance of pest species is based on biological vigor and its intrinsic biological and genetic diversity. Water is efficiently cycled through the system.<\/p>\n

While agriculture takes nature to a state that is one step removed from wilderness, the wisdom of the farmer that guides its course can reflect these ancient principles of sustainability.\u00a0 The view of the farm organism extends beyond the fence line and includes the tangible and intangible forces that work through it.\u00a0 Examples include the climate, inherent wildlife of the earth (above and below the ground), the light and warmth from the sun and the more distant astronomical influences.\u00a0 Biodynamic agriculture attempts to harmonize all of these factors within a holistic, living farm system.\u00a0 The food that results is very pure and true to its essence and provides deeply penetrating nutrition that is essential to an increasingly unhealthy human population.<\/p>\n

Biodynamic Practices<\/h3>\n

In day-to-day practice the goal is to create a farm system that is minimally dependant on imported materials, and instead meets its needs from the living dynamics of the farm itself.\u00a0 It is the biodiversity of the farm, organized so that the waste of one part of the farm becomes the energy for another, that results in an increase in the farm\u2019s capacity for self-renewal and ultimately makes the farm sustainable.<\/p>\n

This requires that, as much as possible, a farm be regenerative rather than degenerative.<\/strong>\u00a0 Consider carefully materials that are imported onto the modern day organic farm. \u00a0Where do they come from?\u00a0 Often they can be tracked back to a natural resource provided by the earth. Examples include petroleum to move materials around, ancient mineral deposits, by-products of unsustainable agriculture-related industry, and the life of the seas and waterways.\u00a0 An important social value of Biodynamic farming is that it does not depend on the mining of the earth\u2019s natural resource base but instead emphasizes contributing to it.<\/p>\n

VIDEO ON BIODYNAMIC FARMING:<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biodynamic agriculture was the first ecological farming system to arise in response to commercial fertilizers and specialized agriculture after the turn of the century, yet it remains largely unknown to the modern farmer and land-grant university system. The contribution of biodynamics to organic agriculture is significant, however, and warrants more attention. This publication provides an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P5hbwr-oo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1651,"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1512\/revisions\/1651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permacultureinstitutethailand.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}