Teasing out the reality of biodynamics

John Hodgkinson

Nature is an altruistic giver. We do not receive an invoice for payment from the soil; nor from a wheat crop or a cow or a tomato plant. Biodynamics is based on our being the initial giver, both in a physical sense and by imagination and intent. Nature’s manifestation via reproduction and growth (cocreation) then feels like a blessing rather than a transaction.

The land on which people farm and garden is a living, sensitive, emotion-evoking landscape, known to indigenous Australians as ‘country’. Biodynamics recognizes this quality also. In accepting that the land is part of a living membrane clothing a living planet- Gaia – biodynamicists have gone beyond metaphor to feel the intimate bond between the living soil and all the lifeforms which depend on it.

Claims are often heard that biodynamics is pseudo-scientific or evangelistic, based on a collection of questionable intuitions, subjectivity, and unproven ‘facts’. These claims can be refuted by the efficacy of biodynamic practices. Biodynamics is a tried and proven agricultural and gardening system. It works. The high vitality and resistance to disease and predation by insects of biodynamically grown plants and animals can be observed and measured. (Chromatography is a useful tool to do the latter in the case of food items.)

The biodynamic preparations are not composts. Nor are they fertilizers. They are“fermented microbial inoculants and biocatalysts derived from animal manures, animal and plant parts and crystal rock ,” says Hugh Lovel, a biodynamic elder. The soil, atmospheric and compost preparations enliven natural processes directly. They are also imbued with that mysterious cosmic energy of loving kindness, which in turn evokes a sense of joy and gratitude in us, our reward to nature for her altruism.

Image above = yarrow in stag bladders hanging over summer – Preparation 502.