When we begin to honor life, everything changes. This morning I got to have a brief discussion about the difference between extractive agriculture, which is being practiced worldwide at an alarming scale, and bio-dynamic agriculture which is growing rapidly but still represents a minute fraction of our food system. Industrial agriculture is a culture of numbers, of subsidy, of finance and of debt. Bio-dynamics is the opposite on virtually every count. It was explained so clearly yesterday that I should be able to share it in one sentence.
What we have come to know as "organic" agriculture is like the foundation of a great pyramid. It sets a beginning point for loving the land into production.
Bio-dynamics fall into another realm altogether. Using the Demeter standards begins to codify sacred agriculture that is directed toward realization of the Earth's potential in ways that are not addressed or delineated within the "organic" model. Think of it this way...This week, one of the largest coal companies that uses a technique called mountaintop removal has said that they will discontinue this method of "harvesting" coal. This is a great step, don't misunderstand me on that point. However, finding more and better ways to not have to use the coal at all is the best step that we can take. The race to do everything we have always done, but doing it a little better only leads to a new place that is only partway to where we want to be. Put another way, imagine how long it takes to run a marathon, then recognize that to do it requires us to fly part of the way, with both feet off the ground. Then, imagine how long it would take if we went the same distance shuffling our feet.
Now don't get me wrong. For some, pushing their envelope to the point of accepting organic standards would be a massive give back to the planet and her creatures, but without going the extra mile and revering the systems upon which all life either flourishes or meets it's demise, we will continue to shuffle our feet when it is really time to fly!
For some, these words will hold no meaning, for without basic building blocks of understanding it sounds like fiction or wishful thinking, but for those who honor and respect the critters we share the planet with, even those we may not be able to see without microscopes, I'm sure you will catch my drift. All life is sacred. The naturopath knows that we are an integrated complex ecosystem. Most doctors do not. The critters in my gut, on my skin and thriving on virtually every nook and cranny on and in my body are experiencing lives of their own. the ways I choose to treat myself affect them and their environment. Approaching a balance point, where everyone is happy and my systems are not under assault is called health in my book. Dis-ease comes from out of balance forces be they nutritional, enzymatic, caused by overabundance of certain microscopic critters or perhaps even lack of certain others. Remember that 85% of bacteria is either helpful for our bodies or has no effect at all on us that we know of. Only 15% is capable of being harmful.
Just as I refuse to use anti-bacterial soaps on the principle that they kill indiscriminately, it is time for our food system to step away from eradication of all life in the quest for more commodities. Most of the land upon which our food is grown has, at most, a fraction of the life that exists on a forest floor. Bio-dynamics presents the opportunity to heal even the ecosystems that we have a hard time seeing. the infinite can live right along with us, in harmony and abundance right under our feet! but we need to learn the ways that the unseen can speak to us. Only thorough us, the land's "managers", can we hope to sow the seeds of change. The process of Sacred Agriculture actually turns the tables still further. when we literally worship the ground upon which we walk, the land can be felt managing us.
When Rudy Steiner gave his ground breaking lectures in German, back in the Twenties, the hallucination or infatuation that we are having with and about chemical approaches to farming were not fully formed. The massive subsidies and monopolies of the "green revolution" had not yet come to pass. Some relegated him to the trash bin of history before his ideas could take hold. After all, what sane person would defend the rights of microbes? Well, after seeing the poisoning of aquifers, the choking of streams that used to support life and the rampant ecologic catastrophes of doing business as usual on farms around the world. I am here to say that something has to give.
With each morsel of food that we consume, we must begin to make a choice. Do we want that food to flow from the tailpipes and smokestacks of production facilities or from the abundance of intact ecosystems? Sacred agriculture offers humanity the chance to avoid shifting wealth into the hands of fewer and fewer faceless corporations and to build a sustainable community that emulates Eden. The masks have come off corporate interests. Those who are willing to believe that the Emperor is wearing clothes are getting fewer and further between. We are rapidly coming to the end of an age. If you have questions...that is a great place to start. Students rarely learn unless they come to a place where they are able to ask the right questions and have cultivated their mind's garden to accept new seeds. Blessed Be and namaste'.
Bio-dynamic Agriculture
What we have come to know as "organic" agriculture is like the foundation of a great pyramid. It sets a beginning point for loving the land into production.
Bio-dynamics fall into another realm altogether. Using the Demeter standards begins to codify sacred agriculture that is directed toward realization of the Earth's potential in ways that are not addressed or delineated within the "organic" model. Think of it this way...This week, one of the largest coal companies that uses a technique called mountaintop removal has said that they will discontinue this method of "harvesting" coal. This is a great step, don't misunderstand me on that point. However, finding more and better ways to not have to use the coal at all is the best step that we can take. The race to do everything we have always done, but doing it a little better only leads to a new place that is only partway to where we want to be. Put another way, imagine how long it takes to run a marathon, then recognize that to do it requires us to fly part of the way, with both feet off the ground. Then, imagine how long it would take if we went the same distance shuffling our feet.
Now don't get me wrong. For some, pushing their envelope to the point of accepting organic standards would be a massive give back to the planet and her creatures, but without going the extra mile and revering the systems upon which all life either flourishes or meets it's demise, we will continue to shuffle our feet when it is really time to fly!
For some, these words will hold no meaning, for without basic building blocks of understanding it sounds like fiction or wishful thinking, but for those who honor and respect the critters we share the planet with, even those we may not be able to see without microscopes, I'm sure you will catch my drift. All life is sacred. The naturopath knows that we are an integrated complex ecosystem. Most doctors do not. The critters in my gut, on my skin and thriving on virtually every nook and cranny on and in my body are experiencing lives of their own. the ways I choose to treat myself affect them and their environment. Approaching a balance point, where everyone is happy and my systems are not under assault is called health in my book. Dis-ease comes from out of balance forces be they nutritional, enzymatic, caused by overabundance of certain microscopic critters or perhaps even lack of certain others. Remember that 85% of bacteria is either helpful for our bodies or has no effect at all on us that we know of. Only 15% is capable of being harmful.
Just as I refuse to use anti-bacterial soaps on the principle that they kill indiscriminately, it is time for our food system to step away from eradication of all life in the quest for more commodities. Most of the land upon which our food is grown has, at most, a fraction of the life that exists on a forest floor. Bio-dynamics presents the opportunity to heal even the ecosystems that we have a hard time seeing. the infinite can live right along with us, in harmony and abundance right under our feet! but we need to learn the ways that the unseen can speak to us. Only thorough us, the land's "managers", can we hope to sow the seeds of change. The process of Sacred Agriculture actually turns the tables still further. when we literally worship the ground upon which we walk, the land can be felt managing us.
When Rudy Steiner gave his ground breaking lectures in German, back in the Twenties, the hallucination or infatuation that we are having with and about chemical approaches to farming were not fully formed. The massive subsidies and monopolies of the "green revolution" had not yet come to pass. Some relegated him to the trash bin of history before his ideas could take hold. After all, what sane person would defend the rights of microbes? Well, after seeing the poisoning of aquifers, the choking of streams that used to support life and the rampant ecologic catastrophes of doing business as usual on farms around the world. I am here to say that something has to give.
With each morsel of food that we consume, we must begin to make a choice. Do we want that food to flow from the tailpipes and smokestacks of production facilities or from the abundance of intact ecosystems? Sacred agriculture offers humanity the chance to avoid shifting wealth into the hands of fewer and fewer faceless corporations and to build a sustainable community that emulates Eden. The masks have come off corporate interests. Those who are willing to believe that the Emperor is wearing clothes are getting fewer and further between. We are rapidly coming to the end of an age. If you have questions...that is a great place to start. Students rarely learn unless they come to a place where they are able to ask the right questions and have cultivated their mind's garden to accept new seeds. Blessed Be and namaste'.
Bio-dynamic Agriculture
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