November 2007 | Green Scene
The New Organic
A controversial agricultural technique rooted in esoteric mysticism is converting farmers to cleaner, greener growing practices
By Niki Stojnic
When farmer Erick Haakenson approaches the fenced-in plot his 17 cows call home, the herd begins vibrating with anticipation. They know his whistle mean the time has come to move to fresher pastures.
Haakenson hadn’t planned on keeping cattle when he and his wife Wendy bought their Carnation, WA farm in 1989. They were mainly just interested in growing organic produce. But about a year ago, Farmer Erick committed to converting his land to biodynamic practices, the core tenet of which is 100 percent independently sustainable operations. That means everything — from the grass the cows eat to the crop-nourishing fertilizer they provide, must come from the farm itself. “If you’re bringing in outside inputs, you’re cheating,” says Haakenson, whose eventual goal is to have 50 or 60 cows to produce enough manure for 30 acres of crop land.
Haakenson isn’t the only green thumb embracing biodynamics. The practice is growing among commercial farmers, vintners and home gardeners who enjoy being intimately tuned to every step of the growing process. Retired Illinois senator and one-time presidential hopeful Carol Moseley Braun became a vocal advocate of the technique after seeing it in action while visiting New Zealand. The style reminded her of the methods her great-grandparents used on their family farm in Alabama.
“I spent a great deal of time there as a child,” Moseley Braun recounts. “But it wasn’t until I met Martina and Christopher Mann at the Michael Fields Institute in Wisconsin that I learned about biodynamics as a practice. I was so taken with what they were doing, I wanted to do it myself.”
Moseley Braun hopes to one day revive the family farm with biodyanmic methods, but for now, she’s content to run her biodynamic brand — Ambassador Organics — which aims to make biodynamic products (currently spices, tea and coffee) more readily available to the average consumer.
“Food reflects the place where it’s grown,” Moseley Braun asserts. “I think [biodynamically-grown food] tastes better. The focus is on the land and where it’s situated on the planet.”
Vintners agree. Biodynamics is believed to enhance a wine’s “terroir” — the flavor that comes from the soil, geography and weather conditions under which the grape was grown. France currently holds the title for the most biodynamic wine producers, followed closely by Italy. But the number of critically acclaimed biodynamic wines has convinced a growing number of California vintners to follow suit, with more farms converting every year.
Roots of a movement
Modern-day biodynamic practices stem from agricultural philosophy espoused by early 20th century visionary Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education. In 1924, a group of farmers concerned about the future of farming asked Steiner to apply his renowned mind to creating a new agricultural model. Steiner, a writer and scientist with a deep interest in spirituality (which would later lead him to the occult), responded with a lecture series on the principles of agriculture as he saw them.
“Most of us have been trained in viewing the world in a Cartesian fence: [that is] the world is a substance and [humans] are different from the earth,” says Haakenson. But Steiner counseled that the earth is a living presence, that the soil not only contains organisms, but is itself a living organism. He also stressed the importance of the rhythms of the universe — the sun, moon, planets and stars — to plant and animal life.
If biodynamics sounds a tad more labor-intensive than your average organic garden, that’s because it is. Keeping cows is only the beginning. Steiner also prescribed 10 soil “preparations” — fertilizer recipes tailored for particular uses — or, as Haakenson puts it, “homeopathy for the farm.”
Everything, from the production to the distribution of these recipes, is intensely deliberate — verging on spiritual ritual. Crops must be watered with tinctures made from herbs like chamomile, stinging nettles and dandelions (grown on-site, of course). Some preparations are spread in the mornings, when the earth is considered to be “breathing out,” others in the evenings when it is “breathing in.” In one preparation, cow manure — which has been packed in a cow’s horn and buried to ferment over the winter — is added to water and diligently stirred into a vortex for one hour, the direction reversing periodically to evenly disperse the mix. In the evening, the water is sprayed on soil (the manual method uses buckets and whisk brooms, brush, or pine boughs) in order to strengthen root formation.
Adherents to biodynamic farming call it the “original organic,” and it’s clear why. Barry Lia, coordinator for biodynamic farming in Washington state, lends a hand on Haakenson’s Jubilee Farm, as well as S + S Farm on Lopez Island in Washington’s Puget Sound. He explains the difference between biodynamics and conventional organics this way: “Organic often becomes a substitution for traditional farming methods, but it’s still using the commercial and industrial agricultural models… Biodynamics gets you off the industrial and commercial model, because the emphasis is on self-sufficiency.”
“People are looking for authenticity,” Lia continues. “The problems with the current food system are just hitting us in the face.”
As Haakenson can attest, anyone curious about biodynamics should understand that doing it on your own takes serious commitment. “There are a lot of people who think I’ve really gone off my rocker,” he laughs. But that’s okay — he and his farm are reaping the ultimate rewards.
Despite not owning a farm or small garden, Seattle freelancer Niki Stojnic finds herself writing frequently about those who do. Fortunately, her houseplants reap some benefits from the research.
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