I farm biodynamically - why? - Christian Von Wistinghausen

Transcript of a lecture given on the 6th October 2000 at the BDAA AGM, Murtle Hall, Aberdeen.

This year the world wide biodynamic movement has chosen as its theme: "I farm biodynamically - why?" Everyone who works with biodynamics will at some stage, ask this question. For myself; I work biodynamically because I drank biodynamic milk from my mother's breast. My father, Almar von Wistinghausen, had been the youngest conference participant at Koberwitz Castle when Rudolf Steiner gave his lectures in 1924. I recently visited this estate in Poland along with Manfred Klett and others in order to erect a plaque commemorating the biodynamic course held at Koberwitz.

Three historical individualities have had a significant influence on the development of agriculture in our time. Albrecht Thae who transformed European farming through including clover grass as part of farm crop rotations, also introduced the concept of agriculture being purely a matter of economics. As a consequence many essential branches of agriculture then considered 'uneconomic', disappeared while those rated as viable were developed to excess as in monoculture and factory farming systems - all with their resulting negative effects on health and nutrition. Justus von Liebig introduced the plant nutrient theory through discovering that growing plants absorb nutrient salts from the soil in the form of ions. This line of thinking led to a misunderstanding of the true relationship between soil and plant and to resultant imbalances in plant growth. One result was that fungal attacks became more prevalent - fungal attack is Nature's way of ensuring that sickly plants do not grow and reproduce themselves. When then treated with fungicides these still sickly plants, fall prey to insect pests and even more chemicals in the form of pesticides are required. The end result of this theory is that the soil nutrients removed through cropping, are replaced by industrial chemicals!

The third person to influence agriculture was Rudolf Steiner who showed that foodstuffs are not only made up of chemical substances but that forces and life energies are also present. What do I actually need from my food, what is it that I do not have? Proteins, starches, fats etc. are of course necessary but as substances they are also excreted again. What I need from them is the energy that they contain. The challenge is therefore to enhance and strengthen these life forces and energies. What then are these forces? I need warmth energy, energy for movement and for digestion and most importantly for thinking. I activate this energy through my will activity. A plant growing upright between the forces of earth and cosmos expresses a verticality which we can equate with a potential for egohood. If I eat such a plant I absorb this ego-forming potential. Considerable energy is required to make raw food available to my organism. The struggle which takes place between the plant and my organism in the course of digestion, serves to strengthen my ego. It can be observed how vegetarians often have a strong sense of self- consciousness. If they eat only raw food however they develop a tendency towards fanaticism.

These ego forces can be strengthened through growing food in the right way. How do we do this? Through working with the biodynamic method and using the recommended Preparations. In his lectures on agriculture, Rudolf Steiner described eight Preparations which can be used to enhance the healthy and harmonious development of plant growth. Horn Manure is made using cow manure and a cow horn. Why cow manure? The cow lives by eating raw plant foods but cannot digest them without the help of the countless micro-organisms she carries within her. The food provides her with the forces needed to build up her bodily organism and to produce milk. Relatively little energy is required for outer movement and since as an animal she does not develop self or ego consciousness, the ego potentiality of the plant is not required and so these forces are excreted again with the manure. This cow manure is therefore an extremely valuable agricultural product. And the cow horn? The horn is akin to hardened skin providing a boundary for the organism and acting as a vessel in which the life processes within the cow are contained. On her head the cow has two pointed bones surrounded by a layer of hardened skin. This skin is renewed each year and as a result the horns are slowly pushed upward. Each year a new layer is added to the horn. The horn material forms an impenetrable boundary for what seeks to escape from the animal's interior into the surroundings. We make use of this holding back quality of the horn.

Some people can directly experience the forces contained in the horns. My father could tell blindfold whether a horn was from a cow or from a bull! Steiner indicated that the filled horn should be placed in the earth during the winter when the cosmic forces are most active. When taken out in the spring the substance smells sweet like woodland soil. Perhaps the manure is still wet and green in spring but it will not smell. If a bull's horn were used however, the manure would always be green and always smell! We can now take the content of the horns, put it into water, stir for an hour and then spray it on the soil at the beginning of the growing season. We want to help the plant organism connect with the life of the soil. Plant roots are surrounded by microbes which break down the substances and materials of the soil and make them available for plant growth. If I supply the plant with soluble salts, it will absorb too much nitrogen and other nutrients and so develop in an unbalanced way.

The plant root envelops itself with organic substance formed by the dying back of its own root cell material and through this feeds the living micro-organisms surrounding it. The kind of substances excreted by the plant (root acids) determine what kind of organisms these are. These root exudates vary according to whether the plant is at the vegetative or at the flowering and fruiting stage. The plant can in this way be selective with what it takes up and it is here that we can provide support using the Preparations. We can help harmonise the nutrient balance and enable the plant to select what it requires rather than forcing it to accept certain nutrients in excess. These harmonising forces are led through the plant and into the human organism through our food. Horn Manure Preparation can help the plant assimilate the substances and forces which it needs. These forces come originally from the cosmos, from the sun, via chlorophyll.

Were only Horn Manure to be used an imbalance would again be created. This needs rectifying with the use of Horn Silica. Once again we use the horn which has the property of being able to hold back forces together with a mineral which acts as a mirror to the cosmos. Quartz is one of the hardest minerals and one with a high latent energy content. By bashing it, sparks are created! The finely milled quartz is mixed with a little water, placed in a cow horn and buried in the earth during summertime. The Horn Manure is buried when the cosmic forces are within the earth. The Horn Silica is buried when the cosmic forces are streaming out from the earth and when the warmth of the sun penetrates into it. We spray the plant leaves with a fine spray of Horn Silica (stirred for an hour in water beforehand as with Horn Manure). On a physical level this treatment results in an increase in sugar content but it also enables the plant to draw in more of the finely diluted substances which it needs and enhance its intrinsic vitality. Its substances will develop a more harmonious relationship to one another within the plant and on a physiological level, the ripening process will become more complete. Quality is dependent on harmony (e.g., too much nitrate brings about decay). When growth is harmonious, food smells and tastes better and people enjoy their food more. This is why I farm biodynamically!

Going beyond organic agriculture, the aim of biodynamics is to provide human beings with the forces necessary to develop a capacity for thinking freely in this Age of the Consciousness Soul (note 1). It is no accident that plants grow better with these techniques. The horn helps to enhance and enrich the forces contained within both manure and silica. It is not the form of the horn that creates the forces - this has been tested many times by experiment.

The six Compost Preparations have the task of guiding the transformation of farm substance into human substance. Five are solid and one is a liquid, all six are medicinal plants some of which require animal sheaths for their production. Yarrow is picked just after the flowering stage, is dried and put into a stag's bladder early the following summer. The filled bladders are hung up in the sun from spring until autumn are then buried in the soil during winter and are ready to be dug up the following spring. The finished Preparation can be stored in a clay pot surrounded by peat, either moist or dry. Whether to store moist or dry is an individual decision. I prefer to dry the Preparations and since pharmacies have been drying their herbs for millennia in order to store them, it cannot do much harm. By keeping them in a moist state they are already starting a breakdown and composting process and I want to use them for guiding this process in my pile of compost.

Chamomile flowers are stuffed into a piece of bovine intestine, (both the small and the first part of the large intestine can be used) during the autumn. If it is hung up in the sun for one or two days to dry, the Preparation will have greater protection from premature composting processes.

For the stinging nettle no sheath is needed. The nettle is cut when about a third of the individual plant is in full flower. It is wilted for a while in the air; it is then buried in a pit surrounded on five sides with peat and then spends a whole year in the soil. When the previous year's Nettle Preparation is removed, newly wilted nettles can replace it for the following year.

Valerian flowers are pressed and the juice extracted. For the Oak Bark Preparation, grated oak bark is placed in a skull in the cavity where the brain of a domestic animal has been. Rain and snow water must have access to the skull.

These six Preparations are used to prepare the compost. We apply the Preparations in the pattern of the five on a dice. A small amount between the fingers is sufficient. The five Preparations are like five poles of a three dimensional magnet and the compost heap is penetrated with these forces. In the heap they can act like antennae to attract the cosmic forces and bring about order within the chaos of the organic material. There is no such thing as natural agriculture because all intervention, all culture is unnatural. Work with the Preparations is totally unnatural. A new culture is being created on a higher level. This is our task when we work biodynamically. Forces are drawn in through humus formations into the root by Horn Manure and into the leaves by Horn Silica. The more we use the Preparations the more we will be able to work spiritually. Each year I give courses to enable people to learn about the Preparations, how to make them and how to gather and work with the materials required. The courses take place over two days with the Preparations also providing a basis for meditative study.

People who work with the Preparations know that they are part of the farm organism and should not be bought and sold on the market as a commodity. A farm newly starting up will need access to Preparations and often neighbouring farms will be able to make them together. Such a situation can also be supplied at cost from using a surplus which may arise from time to time, on one or the other farm. I consciously make the Preparations expensive to buy in order that farmers can learn how cheap it is to make them at home! It is important that methods for making the Preparations do not become too complicated, otherwise they may not be used sufficiently.

It is always better to stir them by hand if at all possible but if this then means that they might not be used then use a machine. In future we may have to work with fewer horns and make more use of hooves. (The hooves of cows and bulls cannot be distinguished from one another and are unlikely to be significantly different)

The above article was put together from notes taken at the lecture. Much of the information given is to be found in a booklet which Christian von Wistinghausen has put together and which is now available in English under the title "Biodynamic Preparations - Production Methods". A sequel on the use of the Preparations is currently being translated. Both publications are being published by the BDAA and will be available from the office shortly.

Note 1: The Age of the Consciousness Soul is the term used by Rudolf Steiner to describe the cultural / historical epoch lasting approximately 2,200 years and corresponding to the time in which the astronomical vernal point (21st March) is located in the constellation of the Fishes. The epoch began at the end of the 15th Century with the transition from the Middle Ages to the Age of the Discoveries. Since the Renaissance a new epoch has dawned bearing the signature of individual freedom. Each human being now has the opportunity to make his / her own practical and moral decisions free from any external moral or religious authority while at the same time developing an increased consciousness for the future of civilisation and the earth as a whole. This contrasts with earlier epochs during which other qualities prevailed.

Christian von Wistingahusen has had a lifelong involvement with biodynamic farming in Germany. He has devoted a long time to working with the Preparations and regularly runs workshops.