Biodynamics, a healthy farming practice for current and future generations & research that underpins the practice

Biodynamics offers an agro-ecological approach to farming and growing where the farmer seeks to work in harmony and balance with nature, where the earth and all living things have a place and are respected. Where whole-farm health is maximised by use of special and specific biodynamic preparations.

Biodynamics “whole farm” approach minimizes external input, incorporates respectful and caring animal husbandry practices, that supports biodiversity and focuses on soil health to produce top quality food while naturally sequestering carbon for a healthy planet. These practices also use some current regenerative farming techniques and understanding, while working to be restorative to soil and whole farm health and using no toxins or chemical additives.

The Farm as an Organism: Biodynamics promotes the concept of a farm as an organism, an eco-system. Farm management seeks to make the farm self-supporting and autonomous, minimizing external nutrient and energy inputs . By using on-farm fertility (manure, green-manures, composting) and the biodynamic preparations, the farm “regenerates” and energises the soil, and replenishes the nutrients used. To replace deficits created by removing “product” from farms. Carbon is sequestered and recycled through crop rotation, integration of animals and compost. Various important minerals are brought and activated through the preparations thus eliminating the need for petrochemical inputs. The aim is improving soil health, water quality and biodiversity. These practices make biodynamic farming one of the highest paradigms of sustainable and regenerative agriculture. (research ref -3, 10 – see page 4)

Biodiversity: Methods for increasing biodiversity via agriculture include a mosaic of hedged fields, high crop diversity and a mandate to leave parts of a farm out of production to restore nature and landscape heterogeneity. This diversity of nature plays a large part in protecting crops and animals from pests and diseases. The increased biodiversity found on biodynamic farms has been attributed to the ten percent for nature required by the Demeter certification criteria and the use of preparations in the compost, providing robust nutrients and fungal life for healthy soil. Supplemented by the extra care and attention to help the balance of nature on the farm (ref 8).

Soil Health: In a study comparing conventional-, organic-, and biodynamic agricultural methods of fertilizing (synthetic, composted manure, and composted manure with biodynamic preparations respectively), biodynamic farms and trial plots resulted in higher soil organic matter and more efficient use of nitrogen. Biodynamic and Organic farms that utilized composted cattle manure had increased microbial bacterial carbon and soil organic carbon when compared with inorganic fertilization. (ref 3, 1).

The following biodynamic practices create topsoil with a healthy microbiome:

1. Comprehensive use of the biodynamic preparations as activators for soil and plant health.
2. Integrated farm animals for manure compost and native pollinators to enhance the microbiology and biodiversity that drives ecosystem function (11).
3. Striving for diversity of plant, animal and microbial species through crop rotation.
4. Limit soil disturbance through using a minimal approach to ploughing and soil disturbance (min-till). (12)
5. Utilise cover crops to maintain living roots in the soil year-round increasing below ground primary production, carbon sequestration, and nutrient cycling.
6. Limit use of machinery (size and frequency) as farmers strive to meet the needs of the farm on the farm, reducing external inputs. Be kind and be gentle with the soil. (ref 5, 8)

 Compost and Preparations:  An integral part of biodynamic farming is the application of various preparations as compost activators, or sprays. The most studied preparation (Horn Manure – 500) is a cow horn filled with cow manure and buried for the winter months before the contents of the horn are diluted and applied to soil or compost. In a laboratory study, this preparation was found to serve as a fertility and nutrient cycling stimulant. The rate of application was shown to be equitable with known natural bio-stimulants (from 10^-9 to 10^-6 Moles per litre). (ref 13)

A recent study using DNA metabarcoding (a practice of comparing DNA fragments found in soil to known bacterial and fungal species) showed that the cow horn is essential in this process to promote keratin-utilizing fungi. In the preparation 500, the fungal species numbers declined as keratin was consumed while the bacterial community increased during the gradual maturation of the preparation, thus slowing the degradation of organic matter. These mature bacterial communities are known for their free living (not in root nodes) nitrogen fixation capabilities. Both the fungal and bacterial communities developed in this preparation are multiple and balanced and support a consistent flux of energy and matter through the soil, improving habitat sustainability. This research improves our understanding of other long-term studies on biodynamic practices which indicated a more efficient soil microbiome that, once activated, quickly increases soil respiration and ensuring nutrient availability for plant growth. (ref 5, 7, 13)

Plant health, silica and food De-mineralisation of our food is a well-researched fact with significant decreases measured since 1950. The biodynamic preparations have been shown to help make soil minerals more available to plants, especially the field spray Horn Silica (also called 501) and to activate the soil biome enzymes. (ref 14)

Animal Husbandry:  Healthier soils with more organic carbon, higher levels of trace elements (vitamins and minerals), and higher available nutrients create a higher quality forage post-harvest resulting in a more health-beneficial ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats. Animals incorporated into a biodynamic farm typically graze on a higher quality forage which reduces methane emissions. Cows are ruminants with bacteria that ferment their food producing methane as a by-product. This is a serious greenhouse gas with the capacity to contain more heat than carbon dioxide, though it is not as persistent in the atmosphere. Concentrated grazing on cereal crops post-harvest reduced methane emissions by 22%. Managing livestock intentionally and including them in the crop rotation as biodynamic farming practices suggest is the best way to reduce methane emissions and contribute to climate change solutions. (ref 2, 6)

Biodynamic practice promotes diverse grass-fed rather than concentrate fed animals as this is their natural diet. Horns have been found to be beneficial to cows’ health and digestion – see the booklet “Why Cows Have Horns”. (ref 15)

 Carbon Sequestration and Water Use: By increasing the amount of carbon stored in the labile (surface) and slow (deep) pools, agriculture can influence whether a farm is a carbon source or a sink. By reducing and using judicious tillage to protect soil aggregates, increasing plant and animal inputs to soil improving soil microbial diversity and abundance, and by maintaining living plant cover on soils year-round to increase the below-ground biomass we can increase carbon sequestration. Consistent use of the biodynamic preparations can help improve soil structure, porosity, and absorption of water.  These soil activators can also support greater soil carbon fixation. A healthy farm ecosystem improves water quality and availability by preventing run-off, and slowing water percolation and leaching through healthy soils. (ref 4, 12)

In Conclusion:  As stated in Regenerative agriculture – soil is the base paper; “a healthy agroecosystem is a resilient ecosystem that improves the food system by enhancing and improving soil health, optimizing resource management, alleviating climate change, and improving water quality and availability”. These are all traits of a biodynamic farm. (ref 9)

A biodynamic farm is a living organism where every aspect from mineral and soil to sky is cared for, it is part of nature where people help hold the balance for the benefit of it all. A Farm is not a production line or a factory, it is not a unit for profit-creation but a key part of the life and health of the planet and of us all.

NB – Demeter is both the Certification mark and the brand for biodynamic produce world-wide. For more info visit Demeter.net

Bibliography:

1. Beluhova-Uzunova, R., Atanasov, D., Biodynamic Agriculture – Old Traditions and Modern Practices (2019) Trakia Journal of Sciences Vol. 17, Suppl. 1, pp 530-536 http://www.uni-sz.bg ISSN 1313-7069 (print) ISSN 1313-3551 (online) doi:10.15547/tjs.2019.s.01.084
2. DeRamus, Alan H. , Clement, Terry C., Gimpola, Dean D. and Dickison, Peter C., Methane Emissions of Beef Cattle on Forages: Efficiency of Grazing Management Systems (2003) Journal of Environmental Quality Volume 32 January-February 2003
3. Fausta, S., Heinzeb, S., Ngosongc, C., Sradnickd, A., Oltmannse, M., Rauppf, J., Geisselerg, D., Joergensena, R. G., Effect of biodynamic soil amendments on microbial communities in comparison with inorganic fertilization (2017) Applied Soil Ecology 114 (2017) 82–89
4. Kane, Daniel Carbon Sequestration Potential on Agricultural Lands: A Review of Current Science and Available Practices (2015) National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and Breakthrough Strategies and Solutions.
5.  Krause, H.-M., Stehle, B., Mayer, J., Mayer, M., Steffens, M., Mäder, P., Fliessbach, A. Biological soil quality and soil organic carbon change in biodynamic, organic, and conventional farming systems after 42 years (2022) Agronomy for Sustainable Development 42:117 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-022-00843-y
6. Montgomery, D. R., Bikle, A., Archuleta, R., Brown, P., and Jordan, J. Soil health and nutrient density: preliminary comparison of regenerative and conventional farming PeerJ
7. Rodas-Gaitan, H., Fritz, J., Dahn, C., Kopke, U., and Joergensen, R. G. Biodynamic compost effects on soil parameters in a 27-year long-term field experiment (2022) Chemical and Biological Technologies in Agriculture 9:74
8. Santonoi, M., Ferretti, L., Migliorini, P., Vazzana, C., Pacini, G. C., A review of scientific research on biodynamic agriculture Organic Agriculture 12: 373-396
9. Schreefel, L., Schulte, R.P.O., de Boer, I.J.M., Pas Schrijver, A., Van Zanten, H.H.E. Regenerative agriculture – the soil is the base (2020) Global Food Security 26 – 100404
10. Turinek, M., Grobelnik-Mlakar,S., Bavec, and Bavec, F. Biodynamic agriculture research progress and priorities (2009) Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems Vol. 24, No. 2 pp. 146-154
11. White, Courtney, Why Regenerative Agriculture? (2020) American journal of Economics and Sociology Vol. 79, No. 3 DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12334
12. Wilman, Elizabeth A. Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils (2011) Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 36(1): 121-138
13. Zanardo, M., Giannattasio, M., Sablok, G., Pindo, M., La Porta, N., Lorenzetti, M., Noro, C., Stevanato, P., Concheri, G., and Squartini, A. Metabarcoding analysis of the bacterial and fungal communities during the maturation of Preparation 500, used in biodynamic agriculture, suggests a rational link between horn and manure. (2021) doi:10.20944/preprints202008.0727.v1
14. Enrichment of putative plant growth promoting microorganisms in biodynamic compared with organic agriculture soils – ISME Communications, Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2024, ycae021, https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycae021
15. Why Cows have Horns – https://www.biodynamic.org.uk/resources/biodynamic-research/

All of the above research papers can be found on the BDA webiste https://www.biodynamic.org.uk/resources/biodynamic-research/