Posted on Jun 13, 2023
“There’s no other type of agriculture as comprehensive as biodynamics.” “Biodynamics is a way I can create with all life around me towards healing”. “I appreciate the focus biodynamics brings to the care and development of all the beings on the farm, including the human being and the community.” These are some of the inspirations calling participants to join Biodynamic Demeter Alliance’s Biodynamic Foundations Farmer Training. A new cohort began in May, with 23 people hailing from across the US and Canada.
Each participant works on the ground with a mentor to get practical experience, forming relationships with the life of a place. We all gather together weekly via video conference for learning and community building sessions. In these spaces we meet to share experiences, questions, and encouragement.
We work with soil care, plant cultivation, animal health, and...
Posted on May 31, 2023
From July 27 to 29 at the Quintessa Estate in Rutherford, Napa Valley, the biodynamic masterclass series known as Cambium will unfold for its seventh edition – and for the first time on U.S. soil. We invite you to reserve your seat on the Biodynamic Demeter Alliance website .
Over three days, international wine producers and leaders in biodynamic viticulture will gather for masterclasses and tastings, building community and conversation around biodynamic farming and wine. The series is enriched by three iconic Italian producers who will share their experiences and practices for building vineyard health and resilience on both large and small scales.
Founded by Italian agronomist and winemaker Adriano Zago, Cambium Formazione is an immersive forum offering guests access to biodynamic and organic producers and farmers worldwide. Previous masterclasses held in Piedmont,...
Posted on May 23, 2023
For the last year, the staff and board of the Biodynamic Demeter Alliance have been working diligently to understand the role we can play in supporting and building the biodynamic community. How do we best support farmers? Businesses? Regional groups? How can regional groups support building a strong biodynamic movement? We are still learning.
Biodynamics can save the world. It’s true. If every farmer and gardener throughout the world grew food and fiber in a way that gave back more than was taken, cultivated fertility and biodiversity of the soil and saw each farm as a whole, interconnected organism, it would change our world.
If every home, business, and farm set aside 10 percent of the land for biodiversity, treated animals with compassion and respect, and perceived all who worked the land...
Posted on May 5, 2023
As the source of our food, cradle of our communities, and root of local economies, land is vital to our individual and collective health and well-being. Yet every hour in the United States, roughly 150 acres of natural land and 40 acres of farmland are cleared, paved, and built upon—190 acres per hour! At the same time, the biggest challenge facing young farmers is land access, especially for young black and brown farmers. Increasing interest and pressure on land create the need for land-centric organizations that can work innovatively amid the rapid changes of our world today.
Living Lands Trust—originally Yggdrasil Land Foundational—was founded in 2000 as just such an organization. A 21st-century land trust, created in part to help serve the Biodynamic community and provide an example of how we might begin to move beyond the notion of land as property. Land as property...
Posted on Apr 18, 2023
(L-R: Tunis sheep, Carlton Farms ; flax harvest, Ekoboerderij de Lingeho ; Sekem cotton; Whispering Winds bamboo)
In November 2023, the Biodynamic Community will gather outside Denver, CO, to learn, share and envision what the next 100 years of Biodynamics might bring to people and our planet. More nourishing food? Healthier soil? Changing paradigms about our relationship to each other, nature, and the land? Fashion is one area that often gets overlooked, yet it is pivotal in our modern world. So what is the connection between Fashion and Biodynamics? Ask Arizona Muse, and she will tell you – everything.
“Everything we need, have, and use is grown in the soil,” Arizona says. “This includes the fiber and leather for our clothes, food for our kitchen, wood for our homes, and herbs for medicine.” As someone who...
Posted on Mar 30, 2023
In Honor of Women's History Month, we interviewed Sherry Wildfeuer, who has significantly impacted the Anthroposophic and Biodynamic movements in the United States over the past sixty years. Sherry has been the editor of the Stella Natura Biodynamic planting calendar since 1978 and a co-worker at Camphill Village for 50 years. She is also an active member of the Anthroposophical Society and its Agriculture Section.
How did you first hear about Anthroposophy and Biodynamic agriculture?
I first heard about anthroposophy when I was a freshman in college. I learned about it from a senior named Joel Morrow (who became the editor of the Biodynamic Journal for several years much later), as he had...
Posted on Mar 10, 2023
In honor of Women's History Month, the Biodynamic Demeter Alliance honors the many amazing women in Biodynamic agriculture whose efforts have left a lasting positive legacy on us all. As we collectively cultivate a humanity that is more inclusive and relationship-based, it is essential that we pay attention to our predecessors who quietly held the wisdom while working hard to achieve milestones in the Biodynamic movement that we revere today. Demeter, the Goddess of the Harvest, is our figurehead for a reason. Women have always played a key role in shaping Biodynamics, and they continue to do so today.
Most people have heard of Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring raised awareness of the dangers of DDT and generated such public outcry that it helped to motivate the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the passage of the Clean Air Act, and a host of...
