"...the interests of agriculture are bound up with the broadest spheres of human life...there is practically no field of human endeavor that does not relate to agriculture in some way. Seen from whatever perspective you choose, agriculture touches on every single aspect of human life."
--Rudolf Steiner, Agriculture
A healthy culture implies a healthy agriculture.
A healthy agriculture feeds a healthy culture.
Beyond the technology and use of machines, today rapidly developing technology (i.e., "genetic engineering") extends into the realm of life, which we can, and therefore do, manipulate for the ostensibly noble purpose of feeding the people of the world.
Life, however, is not mechanical. To begin to comprehend life, something is desperately needed--a fundamental shift in our approach, one that seeks to comprehend the qualities of the living organism as a whole, and in relation to its whole environment, which extends, ultimately, to the outer limits of the cosmos.
This fundamental shift in approach is at the heart of biodynamic agriculture, the qualitative opposite of the genetically manipulative approach to agriculture, or "factory farming." However, whereas the practical differences between these two approaches are profound, the real issue is not the details of methods, but the modes of consciousness behind those methods.
This book arose from the author's engagement with core aspects of the biodynamic approach to land stewardship and from a deepened understanding for how working with the land, plants, and animals may become a catalyst not only for the transformation of compost and soil, but also for a transformation of consciousness.
"Nature's life and flow are so fine and subtle that in the end they slip right through the coarse mesh of our rational concepts. That's the mistake science has made in recent times--it tries to use coarse conceptual nets to catch things that are actually much too fine for them."
--Rudolf Steiner, Agriculture
∞ ∞ ∞
C O N T E N T S
Introduction
1. Beginnings: The Way It Is
2. Digging In
3. The Dance of Dandelions
4. Encountering Alchemy
5. Separate, Purify, and Recombine
6. Dragons and Hens
7. Three-in-One
8. The Turning Point
9. A Distillation of Words
10. Poeïsis
Post Script
"The Way It Is," by William Stafford
"An Offer of Praise," by Wendell Berry & William Stafford
Cited Works and Suggested Reading
About the Author and Illustrator