For decades most of the fellows in my neighborhood have considered me to be a bit off center, an enviro-wacko, though I wasn't so nutty as to be a typically incomprehensible anti-science spiritual fellow traveler with the fringe. I was nuts, but not completely so. Since then the judgment of the community has softened a bit because many of the things that I said have become more main stream. For example, grass fed beef is no longer considered to be nonsensical and they even like the flavor. It's good stuff and good for you. The improvements to pastures that result from good management are extra benefits.

So now they are doing it too and selling their beef and mine at farmer's markets, CSAs and such. There they encounter those who are more truly over the moon and are asking me about them. Is it possible that they have something of value to say as well? Consider biodynamics:

In the early 1920's a group of practicing farmers, concerned with the decline of the soil, sought the advice of Dr. Rudolf Steiner, founder of anthroposophy, who had spent all his life researching and investigating the forces that regulate life and growth. From a series of lectures and conversations held at Koberwitz, Germany, in June 1924, there emerged the fundamental principles of biodynamic farming and gardening, a unified approach to agriculture that relates the ecology of the earth-organism to that of the entire cosmos. . .

Essentially, biodynamic farming and gardening looks upon the soil and the farm as living organisms. It regards maintenance and furtherance of soil life as a basic necessity if the soil is to be preserved for generations, and it regards the farm as being true to its essential nature if it can be conceived of as a kind of individual entity in itself — a self-contained individuality. It begins with the ideal concept of the necessary self-containedness of the farm and works with furthering the life of the soil as a primary means by which a farm can become a kind of individuality that progresses and evolves.

The maintenance of soil life is vital also in order to protect the soil from erosion and to create, improve, and augment the humus content. The result will be a fine, crumbly structure containing the necessary organic colloids. This leads to the production of high-quality crops, which in turn means better feed for livestock and better food for human beings.

Soil improvement is obtained by proper humus management — e.g., by the application of sufficient organic manure and compost in the best possible state of fermentation; by proper crop rotation; by proper working of the soil; by protective measures such as wind protection; cover crops, green manure, and diversified crops rather than monocultures; and by mixed cropping so that plants can aid and support each other.

Farm manure and compost are the most valuable fertilizers. They contain organic matter on which the soil bacteria and earthworms can feed and then revitalize the soil. They contain colloids, which absorb moisture and mineral solutions in the ground, form a crumbly structure, and eliminate the danger of erosion. The careful storage of manure in heaps covered with earth, as taught by the biodynamic method, avoids nitrogen loss to a great degree.

I tell them that the cosmos does not give a rip about farming, that the metaphor of a farm as an organism is weak and more likely to confuse a grower than illuminate anything, but that the principles that biodynamic advocates base their spirituality on are for the most part just good old fashioned common sense agricultural wisdom. By taking the science path to understanding I have many of the same practices but a different - and in my view more accurate and fecund - analysis and explanation of the relevant issues. In addition, by avoiding the error of farm-as-organism thinking it is possible to think at larger scales about the food system as a whole and its relationship to other human needs, desires and possibilities. In short, it's science rather than superstition.

Certain biodynamic preparations are inserted into the heaps in order to speed and direct fermentation and preserve the original manure values. The same principles apply to compost materials. Everything that is apt to decompose can be used. These materials are piled up in alternate layers, and the finished pile is treated with biodynamic preparations.

The biodynamic compost preparations play a significant role in this unified approach to agriculture. They are made of certain medicinal herbs that have undergone a long process of fermentation in order to enrich them in growth-stimulating substances. They react like yeast in dough — i.e. they speed and direct fermentation toward the desired neutral colloidal humus. The preparations themselves are, for practical reasons, numbered 500-508. Numbers 502-507 are applied to the manure and compost piles in very small quantities. They have no manuring effect, their sole purpose being to direct the fermentation of any kind of organic matter toward humus.

Two of the preparations, 500 and 501, are used as field sprays. They are diluted in water, stirred for one hour, and sprayed directly on the soil or plants respectively. Preparation 500 stimulates humus formation in the ground and the growth of roots. It is applied to the land mainly in the fall and the spring, before clearing or after plowing and sowing. Preparation 501 is applied in June or later to the green leaves.

It makes sense to inoculate compost piles with useful microorganisms, minerals, and other chemical substances that act as stimulants such as hormones, enzymes etc. in order to create the richest and most beneficial compost. There's no mystery about this as a general practice but there is great mystery about precisely which additives achieve the best results, and why this is so. Superstitious systems claim to have all of the answers and that ritual behavior guarantees salvation, but science is continuous improvement by stepwise refinement.

Biodynamic agriculture is a way of living, working and relating to nature and the vocations of agriculture based on good common-sense practices, a consciousness of the uniqueness of each landscape, and the inner development of each and every practitioner.

Common-sense practices include striving to be self-sufficient in energy, fertilizers, plants, and animals; structuring our activities based on working with nature's rhythms; using diversity in plant, fertilizers, and animals as building blocks of a healthy operation; being professional in our approach to reliability, cleanliness, order, focus on observation, and attention to detail; and being prompt and up-to-date in doing one's job.

The concern with the uniqueness of a particular landscape includes developing an understanding of the geology, soils, climate, plant, and animal life; human ecology; and economy of one's bioregion.

That's one way of living, but it is not the only or the best way to gain comprehensive understanding of agriculture. The idea of rootedness and situationally appropriate intervention - know you farm like you know your lover's body, and treat it with the same committment and attention to detail - is ordinary agricultural competence. There are growers who are incompetent, and also growers who are stunningly competent. Humans vary.

Rudolf Steiner presents a notion of science that says we can know things that go beyond what we can weigh, measure, and calculate. Science is the practice of observing phenomena and relating them in a way that correctly represents the phenomena's reality. Agricultural judgments about health, what to do where, and when to do what, best succeed when we begin to rely on a certain wisdom gained through observation and experience and when we perceive consciously and concretely the phenomena that induce life itself.

Biodynamic farming and gardening combines common-sense agriculture, an understanding of ecology, and the specific environment of a given place with a new spiritual scientific approach to the concepts, principles, and practices of agriculture.

Steiner practices pseudo-science. His views have the same relationship to science as "creation science". The vocabulary of science is used in unscientific ways to advance mystical beliefs. This was more common in 1924 when Steiner worked than now, though it is still the basis of many environmental superstitions.

The trick is to entertain the views of fringe heretics such as Steiner - or Lovelock, Gold, Alfven etc. - while maintaining a rational focus that investigates claims for true value. Over time the unexplained is sometimes explained. The scientist assumes that everything he knows is wrong in whole or in part and that in future he will chuckle at the silly ideas he had in the past when he knew less. It's open to wisdom rather than closed to new knowledge and the assumption that deviation is sin. The good scientist is like the biodynamic grower, but more so. Good science is beyond biodynamics in a similar sense that biodynamics is beyond organic practice. It's a different and more powerful method.