Wednesday, December 4, 2013

What is the Role of Biodynamics in the Overall Organic Food Movement?

The Executive Director of the Biodynamic Farming

and Gardening Association Explains

 
 
Robert Karp, Executive Director of the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association in the U.S., speaking to an animated and receptive audience in Carlsbad, California, on December 2, 2013, offered these salient observations:
 

Medicine for the Earth

 
Whereas Karp enthusiastically acknowledged and welcomed the current, widespread interest in
 
  • organic food
  • eating from local resources rather than food trucked in from who knows where
  • the dynamic growth of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture support and distribution services)
he pointed out that the earth is sick and needs healing.
 
Going beyond the valuable contribution of the organic farming movement, biodynamics--which is a vital part of it--offers medicine for the ailing earth, in a way that no other part of the movement does.  He then touched briefly on the various biodynamic "preparations," designed to enhance both the soil and also crops once they appear above the earth.
 

The Farm as a Self-Sustainable Organism

 
Another essential contribution of biodynamics is the concept of the farm as a unique organism unto itself.  Although a weak farm may initially need to import manure for its fields and food for livestock from elsewhere, ultimately to become healthy, the farm needs to produce its own field manure and raise enough of its own food to feed its livestock.
 
Furthermore, because each farm and garden is situated in its very own landscape, with its own local weather and climate, each farmer or gardener needs to tune into the overall "personality" of the region where it is located (Something impossible for factory farms!).  As the farmer or gardener through observation of his land, his livestock, his farm or garden organism, becomes more aware of the land's own personality, he learns to work consciously to develop it--the way it intrinsically wishes to grow and thrive.
 

The Surrounding Community

 
 
Robert Karp sees all farms--not just biodynamic farms--as the basis of a revolutionary transformation of civilization.  During Medieval times, the city was the source, the center, that drew people to experience community.
 
 
Now, people try to escape the deadening, albeit exhilarating forces of our cities.  They seek community in a healthier locale and on a healthier scale.  Karp sees farms as a source of renewal, a "potential source of social, community renewal."   Farms now have educational programs and have become places to hold festivals.  The farm is now playing a therapeutic role in civilization.  It is an ark for social renewal. 
 

The Farm as Our Heart

 
The movement toward the farm is a movement of consciousness.  "I am not whole as a human being if I'm not connected consciously to nature, the foundation of all life"

 

 

And the origin of life is the human heart!

 
 
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