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Biodynamics
Macon County Chronicle July 24, 2001
Biodynamics has an organic farming method, born in 1924, which
suggests that the use of artificial fertilizers will have a
detrimental effect on our soils and eventually our human spiritual
development. It appeals to me because it values old-time farming
practices, such as using compost, cover crops and manure.
By giving back to the earth these farm-produced fertilizers, a rich
humus soil is created and maintained with very little cost.
Food is carbohydrates, proteins and fats made up of mostly carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Guess what? These four elements are
given to every farm freely in the form of the rain and air above our
soils. Add a little sunshine and "poof" - plants can't help but grow,
just like they've been doing for eons. They don't need artificial
fertilizers, which, although promoting quick growth, lead to an
unhealthy, unbalanced plant that is more susceptible to insect and
disease problems.
"Farms need cattle" my dad used to say, and old-timers knew the
importance of keeping animals on the farm. Biodynamics echoes this by
pointing out that with the right number of barnyard animals, the farm
will become a self-sufficient individuality. This means their manure
not only fertilizes enough land to grow all of their food, but food
for the farmers and crops to sell, too.
Farm animals transform plant growth and can fertilize more land than
is needed to feed them. By moving the cattle around the farm, and
carefully making hay and compost, a farm becomes a self-contained
entity, capable of exporting some of the free carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen and nitrogen which is in the air and rain above it.
Biodynamics reminds us of the old-timers' advice "make do with what
you've got."
Planting by the signs is another old-time farming practice biodynamic
farmers and gardeners employ. The planets and stars are constantly
changing position and probably affect plant growth more than we know.
Seventy-five years of biodynamic research has proven its
effectiveness.
Homeopathic doctors use very small quantities of specially prepared
medicines to cure people of diseases. Modern scientists have
discovered the affects of radiations. Before the mid-19th century,
instinctual peasant wisdom suggested that, by certain practices,
people could make themselves and the land more fit to grow crops. In
biodynamics, we concentrate the forces of certain substances to make
powerful remedies to heal the earth.
Cow manure has great plant growing potential in it, as any old-timer
will tell you. We strengthen this by burying cow manure in cow horns
over the winter months, to create a homeopathic fertilizer. We stir
one-third of a cup of it into three gallons of water for an hour,
alternating deep vortexes one way for a half a minute, and then the
other way for a half a minute. The we sprinkle the water on an acre
of land in the evening, in a seemingly ancient ritual, which
inoculates the soil with life-promoting enzymes and beneficial
forces, and helps turn the soil into a rich, dark brown humus.
To balance this powerful earth energizer, we need to work with the
sun forces. So we grind pretty quartz crystals, mix the powder with
water, and bury it in cow horns during the summer months. One half of
a teaspoon is again stirred homeopathically for an hour, and sprayed
on the plants in the morning to promote ripening and nutritional
qualities.
Compost plays a key role on the biodynamic farm, and again we make
use of healing homeopathic remedies. The herbs yarrow, chamomile,
stinging nettle, white oak bark, dandelion and valerian are sewn up
in animal organs, or otherwise prepared, and buried in the earth for
a year. Then they are inserted into our compost piles in small doses
to give their enhanced qualities to the entire compost heap, and
eventually the land it is applied on, and food grown there, and the
people who eat it.
The most important thing is that food grown on live soils gives
health to humanity.
In nature, everything is interrelated. Biodynamic farms keep
hedgerows, wetlands, forests and meadows not only for their beauty
and wildlife, but because they harbor forces beneficial to the
cropland. We try to imagine the forces hidden behind what our senses
perceive.
Biodynamics has fostered the development of a new marketing strategy,
too. People used to be able to make a living selling garden produce,
and now, through Community Sponsored Agriculture, they can again.
A group of thirty or forty customers cover the farmer's annual
budget, and they in turn receive weekly baskets of produce during the
growing season. The farmer is thus salaried and guaranteed an outlet
for the farm's produce, which gets to the consumer without any extra
costs for the middleman.
All in all, biodynamics offers a new way, or maybe an old way, of
growing the most nutritious and health-promoting food available
today, and getting it to the consumer as easily as can be arranged.
The earth needs healing and biodynamic farmers are helping to do it.
July 24, 2001
