Understanding Consciousness-Altering Substances: Cannabis, Opiates, Alcohol, and More

Consciousness-altering substances have long been a part of ritual, medicine, and social life. As humanity develops, our relationship to such substances has changed and must be explored and seen anew. Understanding how these substances work in the human being allows us to understand their effects on consciousness and inner development. Substances explored as exemplars will include cannabis, opiates, LSD/psychedelics, alcohol, tobacco, and ayhuasca.

Event Type: 
workshop
Date: 
Friday
Location: 
Pendleton

Sacred Seed Stewardship - CANCELED

Seed is a precious common heritage and an essential component to the future sustainability of our food. Our ancestors have faithfully passed us this incredible gift of life over countless generations. Rowen White, in her work with Sierra Seed Cooperative and Indigenous SeedKeepers Network, is revitalizing the human connection to these sacred heritage seeds and honoring their cultural and practical context within our daily lives.

Event Type: 
workshop
Date: 
Saturday
Location: 
Pettygrove

Biodynamic Winemaking Intensive at Montinore Estate - SOLD OUT

In this full-day pre-conference intensive, we will delve into practical and creative approaches to making Biodynamic wine. Presentations from leading winemakers and researchers will be complemented by in-depth tours of the vineyard and winery at Montinore Estate.

On-farm lunch and bus transportation are included in the registration fee.

Much of this event will take place outdoors, rain or shine. Please dress for inclement weather and wear sturdy shoes.

Space is limited and we expect this event to sell out early.

Event Type: 
workshop
Date: 
Thursday
Location: 
Montinore Estate (Bus leaves from Red Lion)

Achieving Belonging in a Culture of Race and Racism

Race has been an age-old sense of belonging for humanity and one of the strongest inheritances passing through human consciousness. Race holds for us a riddle for a most important step in the evolution of consciousness and the mysteries of the Earth. We are all called into the initiation of a new Earth Culture born our higher belonging. Understanding ways of healing this gap between inheritance and creation is the aim of our workshop.  

Event Type: 
workshop
Date: 
Friday
Location: 
Overton

Connecting to Spirit

Take time to balance stimulating conference content with the healing arts. Introducing simple watercolor techniques in painting and meditation exercises for developing discernment of the heart and cultivating our connection to spirit. Through the arts, we stimulate our imagination and develop a closer relationship of our inner landscape with the outer world of nature. No experience necessary; all beginners are welcome.

Event Type: 
workshop
Date: 
Friday
Location: 
Glisan

Expanding Biodynamic Grain Acres: Farmer-to-Farmer Education and Advancing Associative Relationships across the Supply Chain

The production of Biodynamic grains, pulses, and oilseeds is not keeping up with the demand in the marketplace. Challenges to expanding acres of Biodynamic production include:

- Lack of knowledge to scale Biodynamic practices across larger acreages, and to manage these farms as individual organisms

- Inadequate mechanisms for equitable risk-sharing relationships between farmers and the rest of the supply chain that are truly cooperative (versus competitive)

Event Type: 
workshop
Date: 
Saturday
Location: 
Clackamas

From Here to Everywhere: Building a Regenerative Biodynamic Food System

In this workshop, we explore the notion of a thriving biodynamic food system serving a broad and diverse marketplace. We will start by acknowledging where we are, what such a food system might look like, and what some of the stages of development it will take to reach that marketplace. The panelists bring multiple perspectives and years of experience in the field.

Event Type: 
workshop
Date: 
Saturday
Location: 
Glisan

Biodynamics and Latinos: Healing Pathways from Farm Workers to Farm Owners

Who will renew agriculture in North America in the future? Historically, we looked to the children of family farmers to become our future farmers. Today, Latinos make up a large and growing percentage of the people who do the vast majority of the day-to-day work on US farms. Across the US, among farmworkers for all crops, Latinos comprise more than 80% of the total. More than 75% are originally from Mexico, with an average of ten years in the US. In spite of this growing and increasingly stable population of farmworkers, only 3% of farm owners in the US are Latino.

Event Type: 
workshop
Date: 
Sunday
Location: 
Overton

Social Understanding, Gender, and Sexuality in Agriculture

The social understanding of gender and sexuality is a task for our times. Rudolf Steiner stated that our gender and sexuality are where the human being is most un-free. Our farms, educational opportunities, social and business enterprises, and communities at large are calling for renewed relationships where the capacities of each individual are honored and supported to develop no matter their gender, sexuality, race, culture, or religion. We will explore how the qualities of gender and sexuality live in us and ways to develop ourselves towards freedom from their bounds.

Event Type: 
workshop
Date: 
Saturday
Location: 
Overton