An Email Interview with Robert Karp

We have decided to try a new format as a means for our new Executive Director to begin to share a bit about himself and his vision for the Association. We plan to continue this interview on the website and to work on creating other participatory opportunities for people to chime in with their thoughts and questions so that a genuine dialogue can emerge.

To be part of the conversation, please email questions, comments, or thoughts to journal@biodynamics.com. Stay tuned to this page for a continuation of this interview. (Originally published in Biodynamics Spring 2009.)


Robert KarpRebecca Briggs: So, Robert, how does it feel to be Executive Director of the Biodynamic Association?

Robert Karp: It's a tremendous honor. I'm thrilled and humbled, to put it mildly. This position allows me to bring together so much of my life, of what I've done and what I care about. It feels like a real destiny moment.

Your professional bio is on our website, but it would be nice to hear a little more about the personal path that led you to biodynamics.

At eighteen I encountered anthroposophy through my sister and this had a profound effect on me. I was exploring a lot spiritual disciplines at the time, but anthroposophy was different and slowly it emerged as my core spiritual path.

At nineteen I lived for a time in a small anthroposophical community in northern New Mexico, near the Colorado border, a stunningly beautiful place. That is where I encountered biodynamics. One of the founders of that community had been influenced by Alan Chadwick and the French intensive method. We grew a lot of our own food; we harvested our own wood for all our heat. It was a very influential experience. Around this time I also went to a Prairie Festival at the Land Institute in Kansas and was introduced to Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson. So biodynamics and the wider sustainable agriculture movement were always intimately connected, intertwined for me.

How and when did you get vocationally involved?

When I was twenty-seven, I was a young man still looking for a vocation, searching for my initiative . . . I had studied theater and creative writing, taught a bit in Waldorf schools, considered becoming a priest in the Christian Community. I was interested in everything but didn't know what to devote myself to.

So what moved you toward agriculture?

Two decisive things happened. The first is that I became a member of one of the first CSAs in the country in Massachusetts, Sunways Farm, and became friends with the biodynamic farmer there, Hugh Ractliffe. CSA revolutionized my thinking about farming and about community and my sense of task. I began to realize that there was a role for non-farmers in the agricultural transformation that I knew the country needed.

Around this same time my brother John was killed in a plane crash in Iowa. It was the crash of United Flight 232, a DC 10, into a cornfield in Iowa. It was very dramatic — half the people lived and half died. It's a long story to explain, but to put it simply, when I emerged from the fire and ash of this experience, I knew that my life's work was with agriculture.

As you can imagine, our members are eager to know a bit of your vision for the Biodynamic Association. Can you share a few of your thoughts in this regard?

I'd love to, yes. But please keep in mind that I am sharing these thoughts as a basis for a conversation with the members, friends and with other stakeholders. My thinking on these matters is not fixed. Rather, I want to stimulate a dialogue.

So to begin with, as I shared with the board, I think the stars are aligned for biodynamics to have a major breakthrough in the coming three decades, a breakthrough comparable to the organic breakthrough of the last thirty years. The longing is there, the opportunity is there, the stage is set.

You think biodynamics could go mainstream?

Yes, I think biodynamics could become a much more visible, prevalent, and accepted part of our cultural landscape. But I also think we can accomplish this without the loss of integrity we have witnessed in parts of the organic movement.

Why is that?

Well, for one thing we have a certification system with very high standards that is completely independent of the government. The importance of this cannot be underestimated. For another, we have a truly holistic approach to the food system that incorporates clear and inspiring perspectives on spirituality, social, and economic transformation, nutrition, qualitative research, and design. We are also part of a worldwide movement that has an incredible track record of success in Europe. And we have an amazing history behind us, an incredible legacy on which to draw. Put differently, I guess you could say that I think biodynamics could extend the organic breakthrough and help lead it toward greater integrity, depth, and cohesiveness.

How do you see this coming about?

The reality is this is already happening. More and more people are longing for food with the abundance of flavor, life force, and nutrition that only biodynamics can provide. More and more farmers are looking to understand and embrace the spiritual aspect of nature, and the spiritual challenge of creating a truly holistic farm and a truly dynamic relationship with the wider community. We've seen biodynamic breakthroughs happen already in the CSA movement and in the wine industry. We have a growing number of local groups and regional training programs in biodynamics. The growth of biodynamics is happening — I could cite dozens of examples. The real question for me, and the question I put before the board, is: how can the Association best serve this movement at this time? How can we set in a motion a virtuous cycle as an organization and as a community that allows these far-reaching possibilities to take hold, grow, and ramify? We are moving toward a tipping point and we need to be ready.

So you do see an important role for the Association?

Absolutely. Keep in mind what Rudolf Steiner pointed out about the human heart. The heart does not pump our blood through our circulatory system. Rather the blood has a cosmic pulse of its own that the heart senses and then energizes it, giving it form, if you will. This has been demonstrated scientifically. What I am saying is that the biodynamic movement is like the cosmic pulse of the blood. It has a life of its own. The task of the Association is to sense this pulse and discern how we can best support, energize, and give form to the inherent energy of the movement at any given time. So on the one hand the movement is already happening and, on the other hand, it can't really come to fruition, to maturity, without the Association and the other core biodynamic organizations learning how to serve as vessels for its growth and development.

How do we do that?

Well, we need to think fresh and we need to think creatively and with a long-term perspective. For this reason, I am planning to spend the next year or so convening small gatherings of members, friends, and other stakeholders. I want to start a conversation with the members in order to begin to build up a shared vision of what we think biodynamics could become in the coming decades and how we think the Association can best serve this vision. I want to connect with the pulse of the movement at the grassroots level. And I want to present some pretty far-reaching proposals for what I think the Association could do and become in the future as a basis for this dialogue. It is out of this kind of dialogue with the members, friends, and other stakeholders that I believe a real strategic plan, a transformational plan for the organization in the coming years, can unfold.

I hope to have this same dialogue with our core national, regional, and local partner organizations serving the movement. I want to explore how we can work together more consciously, seamlessly, and cooperatively. Together we are like the limbs of one movement, one vision. This work has already begun, mind you, in some very exciting ways, for example with the "future of the preps" gatherings. I would like to build on that kind of effort and take it further.

In general, I feel the Association has an important role as a convener, and I feel our movement needs a lot of convening work right now, and not just through conferences. For example, I would like to convene the researchers and help them shape a biodynamic research agenda for the coming decade — also the educators and mentors, the investors and donors, etc. It seems to me the Association has put more time and energy into print media than the media of human meetings, and I hope to bring about a balance in that way.

If we are going to facilitate the growth of the movement we need to be in a position to bring people humanly together, to help them find their common vision and learn how to work together effectively.

How much change do you envision for the Association?

Well, I am not suggesting changing our bread-and-butter commitments in the areas of research and education. These areas of work need to be significantly developed, actually. But the fact is the ground we stand on has completely changed. Look at what has happened in the wider food and farming movement in the last ten years — the growth of local, slow, artisanal food; the concerns about GMOs, climate change, food safety, obesity. Food and farming has started to take center stage in our cultural conversation. The world is catching up with biodynamics, and we need to throw open the doors so we can enter into this larger cultural conversation — so we can bring our contribution to the wider society and the wider movement of social and cultural transformation of which we are just one thread.

So you see this as more than just an internal conversation that needs to happen among members and friends of the Association?

Absolutely. I also intend to get out and meet with our friends in the wider local, organic and sustainable agriculture movements and other related movement as well. I think it's time to be proactive about sharing with these folks who we are and what our vision is and to look for opportunities for collaboration. We need to be in dialogue with the wider movement — not only to share our vision, but to learn from others, and to make common cause where we have overlapping goals. Basically, I think we need to foster a new culture for our organization and for our movement — what I would call a "learning community" culture, a culture that embraces the diversity of our movement and our organization.

What do you mean exactly by learning community? Can you elaborate?

Well, let's face it, the danger in all these terms — like organic, sustainable, biodynamic, even local — is that they become rigid, legalistic, and prescriptive. Biodynamics, to my understanding, is not simply a discrete set of practices that you employ on a farm or garden, but rather a journey, a path, an art. We are all at different stages on the path of working creatively with the spiritual forces of nature. Biodynamics looks different on every farm and in every garden, landscape, and woodlot. I think we need to embrace and celebrate this fact. This diversity can be a strength rather than a weakness.

I think the Association needs to be a home for everybody who is trying to transform the food and farm landscape through the stream of wisdom passed down to us by Rudolf Steiner. We are talking about deep social change, and it's going to take all of us to bring this about, the farmers and gardeners, the food distributors, retailers and eaters, the nutritionists, researchers, activists, community organizers, designers, and engineers. Our newsletter and conferences need to reflect this wide and diverse community. People need to make connections across disciplines and learn to work together. I think there are hosts of new ways the Association can foster this greater working together with one another and with the wider communities and movements of which we are a part.

How do we be that open and not lose the core identity of biodynamics?

On the one hand, we need to foster a diverse, inclusive culture. On the other hand, we have to really support and nurture our most capable and successful practitioners, whether they are farmers, gardeners, food entrepreneurs, researchers, or activists. We have to recognize, support, and spread the wisdom of those who have gone the deepest with biodynamics. If we do these two together, I believe we can have excellence without dogmatism and diversity without division. This is the biodynamic social art, if you will! This is what a true learning community is all about.