By Steffen Schneider

Originally published in the Spring 2014 issue of Biodynamics. (By becoming a member, you can receive online access to the full current and most recent past issues of the journal.)

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Biodynamic Movement:

I just returned from the spring meeting of the Board of Directors of the Biodynamic Association in Milwaukee. On a sunny and brisk March afternoon I am reflecting back on our meeting. I also cannot help but look ahead. For many of us, the growing season has begun once again and most likely will be in full swing when you read
this.

I believe 2014 will be a very special year for our movement. Please allow me to share with you why I think that is so. If I “scan” the health of agriculture here in our country and globally, I see a “being” that is not thriving. It is struggling to maintain a foothold on our planet. Here in the U.S. the profession of farmer is literally aging out, and globally the rural landscapes are emptying at a frightening pace. What are possible remedies for this condition? What is required for agriculture to gain true health? I would like to suggest that biodynamics provides a wonderful lens onto this being of agriculture and offers many insights and practical tools to nurture its health. I say this recognizing full well that everywhere in the U.S. the new food economy is emerging in the most amazing ways. Nevertheless, the above observation still holds true to a very large extent.

In June of this year, on the exact days and dates of the original course, coincidentally, we will have the occasion to celebrate ninety years since Rudolf Steiner (the
founder of the biodynamic impulse) shared with us his insights on agriculture within the eight lectures he gave in Koberwitz. At that time, agriculture still had in many ways a healthy presence in our societies, but Steiner could discern the dangers of a future development that would lead to the birthing of the term “agri-business” and the practice of industrial farming. Based on this foresight, he pointed to many health-giving practices that enhance the vigor of farming and food, without the negative consequences of the above-mentioned development.

This “Koberwitz Impulse,” as I like to call it, has inspired many of us in our work. For me personally, I owe it and its founder the utmost gratitude. It has and continues
to shape my life in ways I would have never expected. More importantly though, in the ninety years since its inception and through the dedicated work of many farmers, gardeners, researchers, scientists, and food citizens, it offers today many vibrant examples of healthy agriculture on every continent of our planet. (See documentation of this in the beautiful new book Agriculture for the Future.)

Nonetheless, I have the inkling that many more treasures are hidden within the “Koberwitz Impulse” that are waiting to be discovered and put into practice. Here
are a few, as I perceive them:

  • One is the necessity to allow agriculture to express its multi-functionality. This means re-integrating agriculture much more fundamentally and fully into our society and communities, rather than marginalizing it to the economic fringe.
  • Another is the possibility and invitation to enter into an ever more intimate relationship to each other and our farms and gardens, by consciously and patiently following a path of contemplative inquiry and mindfulness.
  • Lastly, and maybe most mysteriously and importantly, is Steiner’s observation that any farm can best live out its essential nature if we develop it as a kind of individuality. How can we work with this statement? It does seem to tie in with another of Steiner’s fundamental principles, of making a true understanding of the human being the basis for his work. Does it not also invite us to entertain the notion that, while we clearly need to take inspiration for innovations from Nature, we also might have to look beyond? In any event, this question lies at the heart of our everyday work as farmers and gardeners—work that essentially requires of us consciously to engage with Nature, the Earth, other human beings, and ourselves. In other words, what does it mean to be a human being?

So I invite you to join the Biodynamic Association in our commitment to “rethinking agriculture,” to do the best we can to help understand and uncover more fully
some of these elements during the next ten years, when we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the “Koberwitz Impulse” in 2024. I look forward to being able to celebrate that centennial by presenting a re-fashioned new garment to agriculture, a garment that will allow it to live out its full potential here in our societies.

For this year and the “ninetieth birthday,” I want to make you aware of the opportunity to participate in a worldwide celebration by applying the biodynamic preparations during the days in June when the lectures were given in 1924, beginning on June 7 and ending June 16, 2014.

The other highlight of 2014 will be our North American Biodynamic Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, November 13-16. Besides the year, the location for this event
has deep meaning in my mind. Not only is Louisville a city with a thriving local food community, it is also located in Kentucky. Kentucky, or more exactly, Port Royal, is the place that Wendell Berry calls home. One can travel there from Louisville in about an hour.

Wendell Berry has for many years been a prophetic voice calling our attention to the evolution of farming and warning us of all the (unintended) consequences of uncoupling “agri” from “culture,” beginning with his landmark book The Unsettling of America. Today, reality has caught up with his vision and we are in need of a massive “re-settling” of our rural communities. I consider him and his work another powerful lens onto agriculture, particularly as it relates to this country.

So I look forward to our November conference in Louisville, where we will highlight the many connections between agriculture, soil health, food quality, and human
health. I do this with the hope and wish that we will be able to focus an ever clearer vision onto the future of agriculture by our combining these various lenses and so will be able to root and renew Agri-Culture ever more firmly on this continent and connect it with all the many inspiring initiatives of the emerging real food economy. In this way a thriving Agri-Culture will contribute to the wellbeing of our planet Earth and all inhabitants in a much fuller and deeper way.

Or as expressed so much more poignantly in the words of Wendell Berry, “good farming is a long conversation in which all the parties are mutually supportive, a complex and exciting collection of mutually beneficial activities.”

I welcome and look forward to your comments and hope to see you in November.

Steffen Schneider joined Hawthorne Valley Association in 1989 and took on the role of general manager of the farm branch in 2008. Steffen also serves as "adjunct faculty" at the Pfeiffer Center in Spring Valley, New York, where he teaches livestock management and other biodynamic courses. Before joining Hawthorne Valley Association, Steffen was part of the team that pioneered a biodynamic farm start-up in East Troy, Wisconsin. Out of that initiative grew Nokomis Farms and the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute.