Get to know biodynamics from the inside out
The Biodynamic Association’s Biodynamic Foundations Training provides a unique opportunity to take the next steps in your biodynamic journey! The program combines hands-on, practical work supported by integrated learning elements and a cohort-based classroom component with a variety of readings, exercises, presentations, and conversation spaces that bring greater understanding and build capacities to participate more deeply and fully in caring for your farm or garden.
The program is open to aspiring as well as established farmers, gardeners, homesteaders, teachers, and other land stewards.
The program is split into two sessions:
Biodynamic Foundations Session 1 - Biodynamic Plant and Soil Health starts in Spring 2025 and finishes in Late Fall 2025.
Biodynamic Foundations Session 2 - Biodynamic Animal Health, Social Life, Astronomy, and Nutrition starts in January 2026 and runs through August 2026.
Interested in learning more?
Check out the program outline for an overview of the hands-on and classroom training aspects of the curriculum.
To schedule a conversation to see if the program might be a good fit to support your next steps, contact anthony@biodynamics.com.
Applications are due April 2. Our 2025-26 cohort begins later that month.
Hear from program participants
The biodynamic method of farming is a truly unique and holistic method designed to not only grow nutritious food, but also heal the planet on many levels. Enrolling in [the Biodynamic Foundations Training program] helped me understand and synthesize much more readily the teachings of biodynamics then I was able to through my own study. I am forever grateful for this course for helping me go from practically no knowledge of biodynamic farming to [becoming] a confident biodynamic farmer." — Tucker, Massachusetts
"Biodynamics is an important part of my daily life and outlook on all living beings and how they relate to each other. It cultivates awareness, understanding, and compassion. This practice cultivates the body, mind, and spirit of the individual, land, and community. Biodynamics is for everyone." — Carrie, New Jersey
"When I came across biodynamic farming, it served as a source of remembrance of what somehow already lived within. I quickly discovered how grounding and elevating being in the garden was. And also how delightful the other humans engaged in this way of returning to land stewardship are." — Gabrielle, New Hampshire
Program cost & scholarships
Tuition for Session 1 of this intensive program is $2,400. Tuition includes both hands-on training and classroom components. To support your progress, the program coordinator will check in with you on a regular, monthly basis.
Hands-on training will include work with the Biodynamic Foundations Skills Development Guide, daily journaling, an independent project, visits to other farms or gardens, participating in a biodynamic workshop or event, and sharing with your cohort about your farm or garden. The classroom component includes the EduCareDo Foundation Year in Anthroposophy Curriculum; Biodynamic Textbook – Biodynamic Agriculture: An Introduction by Herbert Koepf, Bo Pettersson, and Wolfgang Schaumann; learning and community building sessions with your cohort via videoconference; small group meetups online; and a monthly report of your work, progress, questions, and inspirations.
Scholarship help is available through the Biodynamic Scholarship Fund.
Why biodynamics?
Biodynamics is a holistic, coevolutionary, earth-friendly practice and way of being that creates abundant health for soil, plants, animals, people, and planet. Each unique and self-sustaining farm organism contributes generously to the ecological, economic, social, and spiritual vitality of its surrounding community and landscape, and the whole living earth. Through biodynamics, we can access new capacities in human creativity to sense and respond to the needs of the planet, and unfold new solutions in a living and dynamic way. Biodynamics is both a way to bring health and healing to agriculture and a potent movement for new thinking and practices in all aspects of life connected to food and agriculture.
The principles and practices of biodynamics can be applied anywhere, with thoughtful adaptation to scale, landscape, climate, and culture.
Our educational principles
Every situation and every being has something to offer and something to teach. We strive to have open and honest conversations, and challenge our views and opinions.
We are all students, and work to help each other learn and grow.
Each person is recognized as a whole human being. Our thinking, feeling, and willing are engaged fully through our heads, hearts, and hands.
Dialogue and direct experience are primary learning tools.
A diversity of questions, perspectives, and abilities are welcomed. Our complex individual lives are honored and respected. We work to harness the potential of diversity and integrate it into a cohesive whole.
The human being has a rich inner life as well as an outer life, and the health of this inner life is intimately connected to the progression and health of our communities, culture, and societal systems.
Active engagement, self-awareness, and the respect of the freedom of each individual are core responsibilities of all participants.