Workshop Session F

In response to the repeated requests from area farmers for Rudolf Steiner to provide guidance on how they could reverse the trend of soil degradation and reduced yields, Steiner gave an eight-part lecture series on agriculture. These lectures outlined principles to improve soil and plant health; afterwards they became the basis of biodynamic farming. Steiner offered a perspective on trees that was rather radical for his time in 1924. Still today, a reading of his lectures continues to provide a unique and refreshing understanding of Earth’s largest and oldest life forms — trees.

In this workshop, we will describe the original ideals out of which our Community Supported Farm was founded in New Hampshire in 1986. This model goes beyond marketing and was based on Rudolf Steiner's social ideal of the farm in relation to the surrounding community. We will pay special attention to Steiner's description of the farm as a part of the cultural (agriCULTURE) and rights spheres and not exclusively as an economic activity. This implies an understanding of his observation of the threefold nature of social life.