Biodynamic research, education and outreach

In agriculture, as perhaps in all of life, perspective is everything.

Biodynamic agriculture is an approach to agriculture that recognizes the basic principles at work in nature and takes these into account in order to bring about balance and healing. It recognizes that plant health is intimately tied to the health and vitality of the soil. It embraces the ideal of the self-contained farm - that there should be just the right number of animals to provide fertility, and these animals should, in turn be fed from the farm.

How we look at land or livestock, how we view our role in the process of growing or producing something, how we see inputs and outcomes - on all of this the farm, the world depend.

With nature as its teacher, biodynamics offers a new scientific perspective to agricultural production. It recognizes the vital importance of relationships - of nutrient to soil, soil to plant, plant to soil, plant to plant - in a systematic study that seeks balance and integration.Washing roots of corn in a comparative study.

With vitality of soil and plant as its goal, biodynamics studies the principals at work in nature, the healing solutions they offer for a wise use of the Earth's resources and a safe, healthful agricultural production. To farm otherwise, in a narrow focus on isolated crops, inputs and yields, holds great potential for long-term risks and high costs. Our soil, our environment, our farmers and consumers alike are all bearing these costs.

In targeting biodynamic education, research and outreach as a major program goal, Michael Fields recognizes the importance of perspective. It recognizes that to bring about positive changes in agriculture will require thought and vision.

"All around us, everywhere, there is evidence of degeneration," said Walter Goldstein, who directs the institute's biodynamic program. "Domestic animals have lost their instincts through over-breeding and one-sided production practices. It's difficult to raise lambs unless we worm them, to get chickens that hatch out their own eggs, to get turkeys that can reproduce naturally."

"Not just this country, but around the world we've really got problems with our soils - infertility, compaction, root disease, poor soil structure, trace elements not being taken up. Biodynamics has an approach that can lead to a healthy farming; we need it," Goldstein said.

Studying dynamics at work in biological life, toward practical application of a set of healing principles in agriculture, is on the threshold of exciting new opportunities in the United States. Biodynamics has been better known and more widely practiced and studied in Europe, but it is gaining attention in America. Goldstein, who is in his 16th year at Michael Fields, has been studying, using, researching biodynamics for 30 years.

"I've long been interested in healthy agriculture and how to bring health into agriculture," Goldstein said. "How we farm, breed, fertilize, rotate crops, control weeds, diseases and insects - how we organize, structure, manage our farms - that's where I've felt at home, where I felt I could make a contribution and a difference."

"Biodynamics takes the living world very seriously. It doesn't treat organisms as machines, but as having integrity," he said. "That needs to be conceived of in order to manage animals and plants in a way that's in harmony with what they are. Conventional agriculture treats livestock and plants as production units, ignoring their identities as living organisms that need certain sorts of environments to be healthy and healthful."

Through comparative research and development, publications and training, Michael Fields is advancing biodynamics across the United States and around the world.

Biodynamic growing methods are being taught in the institute's subscription garden and seasonal internship program. Effects of biodynamic practices on plant growth, soil and root health, are being researched and comparatively studied with conventional planting methods in systems trials that the institute is leading. And biodynamic growing methods and perspectives are being shared in professional workshops for growers and farmers under Michael Fields' leadership annually.

Related MFAI research papers

• Yield and Root Growth in a Long-Term trial with Biodynamic Preparations [pdf 158kb]
• Comparisons of Conventional, Organic and Biodynamic Methods [pdf 45kb]