Organic production methods, healthier diets and local food systems are a great and growing parts of the current changes sweeping across developing nations. The "green revolution" that involved massive debt being heaped upon developing nations, huge corporate welfare for equipment, seed and agricultural chemical manufacturers has failed to improve the quality of life for the billions of people that it was supposed to lift up. Now, we face a sad fact. The "developed" nations that exported this idea of conquest of the land, subjugation of nature and monetizing all aspects of the crippling food production system have had to face the truth of what they have done.
Feeding the world with subsidized commodities has led to skyrocketing illnesses of all types and kinds. Aquifers that had been stable for millenea are depleted, surface waters no longer support life or have dried up completely and the heartbeat of the land itself has been drowned out by the whir of machinery and the thumping diesel engines that wrest the last few calories out of a toxic Earth. I have long written of the fallacy that is the "scientific" approach to agriculture. N, P & K were the holy grail of agriculture just a few short generations ago. Farmers were told that by focusing all of their attention on these macro-nutrients, they could increase harvests and profits, cover their debts and make millionaires into billionaires. now the chickens, so to speak, have come home to roost.
Like in dust bowl days, the soils have left. not so much in the vast black clouds of the last depression, but only because there was not even enough soil left to blow away. The subsoil that many farmers continue to plow are so bereft of organic matter that what blows away is no longer black. The wind carries away fine particles scoured away by the ice crystals of winter and suspends them in water with each heavy rain, choking streams, transporting the building blocks of soil to the great rivers and ultimately the oceans, never to be seen again. times are tough for the agricultural industry because the truth of the matter is out. The masks which the demonic and despotic industrialists used to hide their interests and intent have slipped away, and the public is demanding real food instead of science projects. the last thing we need is poisonous concoctions that render soil inert, our bodies unable to assimilate and the economy dependent on bankers and their extractive methods. We need to transform our food systems to be more humane, to farmers, the land they are charged with caring for and ultimately the people who consume the foods produced upon it.
Bio-dynamic agriculture is, as the term implies, full of life and always changing. There are great thing to be said about organic approaches to agriculture but if we think of it as a child rearing method, perhaps it will make more sense. Let us take two parents and two children, pair them up and imagine one parenting scheme that was based on the word no. Organic agriculture approaches the production of food like this. "No" to chemicals, "no" to pesticides, "no" to herbicides, "no" to poisons of all types. While these are all great things, they must be put into perspective, balanced with what we could do and if we were to raise a child on nothing but "no", what kind of child and what kind of adult would they become. As further foil to this limiting idea, turn your attention to the second parenting example. In this example, the parent allows their child to make up their own minds. 'If you do this, that will happen"..."I feel such and such when you say or do so and so"..."have you noticed that when you_____, it affects others like this. I realize that these techniques may not be appropriate when the child darts out into traffic, but our relationship to the land unflods over much larger periods of time than raising a child. We can have foundational learning based on this culture of no, but we must balance that with the other part of being a well-rounded person. The other approach is to say..."When this happens, that is the result." or "If you really must do such and such, this is how you can do it without the negative impacts." Bio-dynamics has remedies for your ailing soil, nourishing preparations for sick ecosystems and whole life approaches that farms need to re-establish both soil and the life that thrives when it is given a chance.
Remember when we were young. Nearly everyone can remember that creepy uncle that you didn't want to hug you, or who you would never sit upon their lap. Heck, many of us have relatives that would send us running to a closet to hide from until they were gone! the Monsantos, Cargills and Nestle's of the world are those creepy uncles. It is more important to understand that they are dangerous than it is to understand exactly why. The emperor has never had any clothes on, but we have just heard the innocent child say so, how we move forward from here will dictate whether or not we are able to survive as a species. I certainly don't want to devolve into a discussion of religion, but whatever gods or goddesses you believe in, I'm sure that they love you, I'm sure that they want you to not only survive, but to thrive. Bio-dynamics offer the last best hope for this to be the case. The Earth, Air, Fire and Water offer us infinitely more than the corporate giants want us to have. The abundance that is possible if we work with nature, rather than against it is possible only if we honor and respect the forces that are alive within us, the land and the spirit that has been oppressed by corporate forces for generations. further information about bio-dynamic agriculture can be found at my link to Sacred Agriculture.
Feeding the world with subsidized commodities has led to skyrocketing illnesses of all types and kinds. Aquifers that had been stable for millenea are depleted, surface waters no longer support life or have dried up completely and the heartbeat of the land itself has been drowned out by the whir of machinery and the thumping diesel engines that wrest the last few calories out of a toxic Earth. I have long written of the fallacy that is the "scientific" approach to agriculture. N, P & K were the holy grail of agriculture just a few short generations ago. Farmers were told that by focusing all of their attention on these macro-nutrients, they could increase harvests and profits, cover their debts and make millionaires into billionaires. now the chickens, so to speak, have come home to roost.
Like in dust bowl days, the soils have left. not so much in the vast black clouds of the last depression, but only because there was not even enough soil left to blow away. The subsoil that many farmers continue to plow are so bereft of organic matter that what blows away is no longer black. The wind carries away fine particles scoured away by the ice crystals of winter and suspends them in water with each heavy rain, choking streams, transporting the building blocks of soil to the great rivers and ultimately the oceans, never to be seen again. times are tough for the agricultural industry because the truth of the matter is out. The masks which the demonic and despotic industrialists used to hide their interests and intent have slipped away, and the public is demanding real food instead of science projects. the last thing we need is poisonous concoctions that render soil inert, our bodies unable to assimilate and the economy dependent on bankers and their extractive methods. We need to transform our food systems to be more humane, to farmers, the land they are charged with caring for and ultimately the people who consume the foods produced upon it.
Bio-dynamic agriculture is, as the term implies, full of life and always changing. There are great thing to be said about organic approaches to agriculture but if we think of it as a child rearing method, perhaps it will make more sense. Let us take two parents and two children, pair them up and imagine one parenting scheme that was based on the word no. Organic agriculture approaches the production of food like this. "No" to chemicals, "no" to pesticides, "no" to herbicides, "no" to poisons of all types. While these are all great things, they must be put into perspective, balanced with what we could do and if we were to raise a child on nothing but "no", what kind of child and what kind of adult would they become. As further foil to this limiting idea, turn your attention to the second parenting example. In this example, the parent allows their child to make up their own minds. 'If you do this, that will happen"..."I feel such and such when you say or do so and so"..."have you noticed that when you_____, it affects others like this. I realize that these techniques may not be appropriate when the child darts out into traffic, but our relationship to the land unflods over much larger periods of time than raising a child. We can have foundational learning based on this culture of no, but we must balance that with the other part of being a well-rounded person. The other approach is to say..."When this happens, that is the result." or "If you really must do such and such, this is how you can do it without the negative impacts." Bio-dynamics has remedies for your ailing soil, nourishing preparations for sick ecosystems and whole life approaches that farms need to re-establish both soil and the life that thrives when it is given a chance.
Remember when we were young. Nearly everyone can remember that creepy uncle that you didn't want to hug you, or who you would never sit upon their lap. Heck, many of us have relatives that would send us running to a closet to hide from until they were gone! the Monsantos, Cargills and Nestle's of the world are those creepy uncles. It is more important to understand that they are dangerous than it is to understand exactly why. The emperor has never had any clothes on, but we have just heard the innocent child say so, how we move forward from here will dictate whether or not we are able to survive as a species. I certainly don't want to devolve into a discussion of religion, but whatever gods or goddesses you believe in, I'm sure that they love you, I'm sure that they want you to not only survive, but to thrive. Bio-dynamics offer the last best hope for this to be the case. The Earth, Air, Fire and Water offer us infinitely more than the corporate giants want us to have. The abundance that is possible if we work with nature, rather than against it is possible only if we honor and respect the forces that are alive within us, the land and the spirit that has been oppressed by corporate forces for generations. further information about bio-dynamic agriculture can be found at my link to Sacred Agriculture.
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