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In the year 1922, farmers began seeking Dr Steiner’s advice in relation to agricultural matters. Discussions began taking place in regards to the increasing degeneration of seed strains and many cultivated plants. It was in 1922 that Dr Steiner described for the first time how to make the bio-dynamic preparations, simply giving the recipe to Drs Wachsmith and Pfeiffer without any explanation. The two doctors then proceeded to make the first batch of prep. 500 (horn mist). This was buried in the garden of the “Sonnenhof” in Arlesheim, .
This first batch was dug up in the presence of Dr Steiner in the early summer of 1923. Dr Steiner called for a pail of water and proceeded to apportion the horn’s contents to the water and demonstrate the correct way of stirring. Rudolf Steiner was particularly concerned with demonstrating the energetic stirring, the forming of a vortex and the rapid changing of direction. Brief directions followed as to how the preparation was to be sprayed when stirring was finished.
The Agricultural Course was convened from June 7 – 16, 1924. Admission to the course was limited to professional farmers, gardeners and scientists who had both practical experience and spiritual-scientific background. The latter being regarded as essential to understanding and evaluating what Dr Steiner set forth. The bio-dynamic method can be applied by any farmer, but it is also true that there is a considerable difference between mere application of the method and creative participation.
A number of farmers in the Anthroposophical Society had requested a course on agricultural issues, and on this occasion the farmers in our society came together from near and far for some earnest study of how anthroposophical research can contribute to this area of human endeavour.
In conjunction with the course and the daily discussions that accompanied it, the anthroposophical farmers in attendance established an Experimental Circle which will work very closely with the Natural Science Section here at the Goetheanum. It will be up to the Natural Science Section to work out general principles based on information (soil, climate, fodder, etc) provided by the farmers. Once the farmers have provided these details, the Natural Science Section will then work out guidelines for setting up further experiments so that the practical pointers given in the course and in the accompanying discussions can actually be tried out (Steiner 1993)
In the Agricultural course, which was attended by some sixty people, Dr Steiner set forth the basics of a new way of thinking about the relationships of our earth and soil to the formative forces of nature. He pointed out particularly how the health of soil, plants and animals depends upon bringing nature into connection again with cosmic creative shaping forces. The practical method he gave for treating soil, manure and compost, and especially for making the bio-dynamic preps, was intended above all to serve the purpose of re-animating the natural forces, which in nature and modern agriculture, were on the wane.
The name BIO-DYNAMIC Agriculture did not originate with Dr Steiner, but with the Experimental Circle concerned with the practical application of the new direction of thought. At first it was agreed to keep the content of the lectures confidential while working together on the farms with the Natural Science Section to elaborate the suggestions made by Dr. Steiner. "Among the first positive observations were the qualitative improvement of vegetables and also the improvement in the palatability of fodder together with an increase in its satisfying characteristics. Soon the health of domestic livestock improved. It also became apparent that to convert a farm in accordance with the guidelines given in Koberwitz it was necessary to apply every measure that would speed up the development of soil life and support the building up of the whole farm organism." (Postscript to the 1963 German edition of the Agricultural Course.)
Outside opinion then and frequently even today sees bio-dynamic methods as no more than a manuring technique. This is too narrow a view. Those involved realized from the start that any changeover would have to encompass the farm as a whole. The aim is a farm organism that is in harmony with its habitat and in balance with the requirements of those who work there and the market it supplies. The values of traditional and modern methods are measured according to this yardstick.
Some of the tasks that were tackled with interest are: application of the manure and spray preparations; composting; hedge-growing and other landscaping measures; optimum use of legumes on the farm including mixed growing with cereals; mulching; growing of herbs and their use in fodder; companion plants; bird protection; pioneer plants on poor arable and woodland; catch cropping; applying green manure; housing of livestock; producing concentrates on the farm, partly by means of hot-air drying of young fodder plants; natural silviculture; various techniques for sound crop husbandry and grass management. The farmers also quite often provided the facilities for experiments concerning Dr. Steiner's suggestions on weeds and pests and on the regeneration of worthwhile but threatened strains.
In Germany the Experimental Circle was banned in 1941, even though some of those responsible for agriculture at a national level at the time were in fact interested in biological methods. Before this, during the thirties, under the purposeful guidance of E. Bartsch, it approached the public through regularly held conferences and the publication of its own literature. It was divided into regional working groups which, with the help of their full-time advisers, regularly exchanged experiences, conducted developmental work and undertook to inform the public. The critical situation in Germany before the World War II gave occasion for B. von Heynitz to bring out a report on 55 medium and smaller farms that existed at the time in Saxony .
In order to meet the interest of consumers in bio-dynamic products, the Demeter Association was founded at that time on the initiative of the producers. It registered and distributed bio-dynamically grown products under a registered trade mark. Bio-dynamic products were marketed under the brand name of "Demeter" by the Demeter Association. Marketing centers were established regionally in order to decentralize the work.
Soon after it commenced, bio-dynamic work spread to a number of European and non-European countries. E. Pfeiffer, who had become known first at the Goetheanum at Dornach, Switzerland, and then in Berlin with a variety of experimental work, moved to the United States in 1939. There he built up the bio-dynamic organization and developed a great variety of work from the Bio-Chemical Research Laboratory he established at Threefold Farm in Spring Valley, N.Y.
Before World War II, the movement was most prevalent in the eastern and central provinces of Germany, lands that have since fallen under other administrations. The few farms left in West Germany after the war continued to work. There, after a few of those who had been responsible for the venture before the war had met each other again, the Experimental Circle for Bio-Dynamic Horticulture and Agriculture was founded. Old contacts were remade, while month-long introductory courses held once or twice a year won the interest of new people. The advisory service was established. Contacts were taken up again with farmers in Switzerland, Holland, Denmark,Sweden, Norway, and then Finland, Britain, France and Austria. National "Experimental Circles" with their own magazines, literature, conferences, etc., came into being in these countries. The annual Winter Conference held at the Goetheanum in Switzerland, the Free School for Spiritual Science, united a growing number of colleagues.
Research was stimulated by the founding of the Institutes for Bio-Dynamic Research. In addition to the facilities at the Goetheanum, facilities were available at the Institute in Darmstadt, West Germany (since 1950); the experimental and training farm at Rodbjerggaard, Denmark (from 1946-55); and the Institute at Järna, Sweden. Questions dealt with included composting; silage making; the relations between habitat, manuring and the quality of produce; and the bio-dynamic preparations--all this quite apart from the rapidly increasing volume of routine quality checks and advisory aid for the Demeter organization.
The Experimental Circle for Bio-Dynamic Agriculture and Horticulture is the proprietor of the "Demeter" trade mark. In 1954 the new Demeter Association was founded in Germany. The range of fresh, processed and preserved Demeter products now available is extensive. It includes nearly all the vegetable and animal foods that can be grown in the country or made from domestic production.
REFERENCES
Koepf, H. Petterson, B. Schaumann,W. (1976) Bio-Dynamic Agriculture : An Introduction. N.Y. Anthroposophical Press.
Pfeiffer, E. (1983) Bio-Dynamic Gardening and Farming. N.Y. Mercury Press, Spring Valley
Steiner, R. (1993) Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture. Pennsylvania , Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association, Inc.
Shouldice, R. (1993) Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture. Pennsylvania , Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association, Inc.
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