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  • Episode 152 – Ueli Hurter & Jean-Michel Florin on Biodynamics at the Goetheanum in Switzerland
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Episode 152 - Ueli Hurter & Jean-Michel Florin on Biodynamics at the Goetheanum in Switzerland
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Biodynamics ~ Celebrating the 100 Year Anniversary at the Goetheanum!

Recorded at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, this podcast episode features Jean-Michel Florin and Ueli Hurter, the Co-Leaders of the Goetheanum’s Agriculture Section, which is the global headquarters for the Biodynamic farming and land stewardship movement. Preparing to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s agriculture lectures in 2024, Jean-Michel and Ueli discuss the momentous Agriculture Conference (titled “Sun, Earth, Human”) that will take place at the Goetheanum February 7-10, 2024, with a focus on climate, resilience, nutrition, and health.

About Biodynamics

In 1924, when Rudolf Steiner gave eight lectures on agriculture in Koberwitz (Kobierzyce), Poland, the Biodynamic movement was conceived, and an advanced form of ecosystem regeneration and stewardship framework was launched. Responding to requests from farmers to provide guidance for improved vitality and nutrition after many of them observed declining health and productivity in their farms as a result of utilizing the synthetic chemical fertilizers stemming from the munitions industry of WWI, Steiner’s recommendations for the foundation of an advanced form of organic agricultural, and a land stewardship practice involving intimate human-nature relationships. Biodynamics involves the use of myriad “preparations” – certain herbaceous plants, manures, and inorganic minerals buried, composted, and “transmuted” underground for months at a time, resulting in extremely potent fertilizers and life-enhancing organic agricultural inputs. In his characteristically deep, spiritual style, Steiner had this to say about the state of our food and agricultural systems: “The most important thing is to make the benefits of our agricultural preparations available to the largest possible areas over the entire Earth, so that the Earth may be healed and the nutritive quality of its produce improved in every respect. This is a problem of nutrition. Nutrition as it is today does not supply the strength necessary for manifesting the spirit in physical life. A bridge can no longer be built from thinking to will and action. Food plants no longer contain the forces people need for this.” As it is currently being practiced around the world, from small-holder farms in India to high-end vineyards in California, and from Australia to Europe, biodynamics not only provides improved farm ecology and nutrient density in food products, but also an important approach to carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation grounded in humanity’s aligned co-creation with nature. All of this and more will be featured at the upcoming Agriculture Conference in February, 2024 (agriculture-conference.org).   

About the Goetheanum

Named in honor of the great author, scientist, and esoteric mystic, Johann von Goethe, the Goetheanum is a spiritually-energized theater, gathering center, and ceremonial mecca that embodies the spirit and practices of Rudolf Steiner’s immense legacy, which bridges spirituality, science, and artistic expression. From biodynamics to Waldorf education and from Eurythmy to all-natural cosmetics, Steiner’s legacy (or “impulse”) has spread world-wide, with vitalizing impacts in agriculture, pedagogy, medicine, body movement, and personal care products.

About Jean-Michel Florin

Co-leader of the Section for Agriculture from 2010. Studied agriculture and nature conservation, coordinator of the biodynamic association in France (MABD), author and editor of books and journals, expert and speaker on the subjects: Goethean botany, medicinal plants, landscape, viticulture, etc.

Responsibilities: Head of the Section Responsible for the professional groups olive growing, viticulture, consulting, training, landscaping, fruit growing, herbs & medicinal plants. Collaboration in the Goetheanum Leadership.

About Ueli Hurter

Co-leader of the Section for Agriculture from 2010 and, since 2020, also on the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society. Member of the Board of Directors at Weleda since 2019. Biodynamic farmer on the Ferme-Fromagerie de L’Aubier and part of the management of L’Aubier until 2020. From 2002 board member of the International Biodynamic Association (IBDA) and on the Supervisory Board of the Biodynamic Federation Demeter International (BFDI) since 2021. Author of Biodynamisch!

Responsibilities: Head of the Section. Responsible for: Projects, Economic Council of the Section, preparations and seeds. Collaboration in the Goetheanum Leadership.

Resources & Related Episodes

www.sektion-landwirtschaft.org/en/

www.agriculture-conference.org

Ep. 147 – Sheila Foster, Exec. Dir., Biodynamic Demeter Alliance

Ep. 98 – Lin Bautze, Geotheanum

Ep. 47 – Thea Maria Carlson, Past Exec Dir., Biodynamic Association

Ep. 44 – Pat Frazier, Peace & Plenty Farm

Ep. 5 – Stephanie Syson, Biodynamic Botanicals & Herbal Medicine

Ep. 3 – Brook Le Van, Sustainable Settings Biodynamic Ranch

Transcript

(Automatically generated transcript for search engine optimization and reference purposes – grammatical and spelling errors may exist.)

Welcome to the YonEarth Community Podcast. I’m your host, Aaron William Perry. Come

and at you from the Gertianum in Donach, Switzerland, and visiting today with two very special

guests. Immediately on my left is Waili Poulterer. It’s hard for me to say. Waili, welcome.

Yeah. And on the other end is Jommi Schelfloin. And Jommi Schell and Waili are the directors of

the Agriculture section of the Gertianum doing the Biodynamics work worldwide. Welcome to the

Why On Earth Community Podcast. Thank you for invitation. Thank you very much. It’s my pleasure. And

perhaps you could say your names for our audience so they hear the correct pronunciation, the precise

pronunciation. Yeah. So my name is Waili Hurter. And it’s a Swiss German name and therefore it’s

not easy for other languages. And my name is Jommi Schelfloin. It’s also maybe not so easy to say

and I come from France. Thank you very much. Gantz Schféri Khymi. Difficult. Well done.

Jommi Schelf is the co-leader of the section for agriculture since 2010. He studied agriculture and

nature conservation as the coordinator of the Biodynamic Association in France, author and editor

of Books and Journals, expert and speaker on these subjects. Gertian botany, medicinal plants,

landscape and video culture. And we’ll be talking a bit. We’ll hit on video culture and the

Gertian botany because this is a very important specific thread and gesture impulse running through

Steiner’s work. And Waili is also a co-leader of the section for agriculture also since 2010.

And since 2020 is on the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society. He’s a

member of the Board of Directors at Walleda since 2019 and a Biodynamic Farmer on the Fermi

Formagerie de L’Obié. Part of the management of L’Obié.

Okay. Since 2002, he’s a board member of the International Biodynamic Association and is on

the supervisory board of the Biodynamic Federation Demeter International. He is also author of a

book called Biodynamic, Biodynamic, a new book that the near future will be available in

English. And we’ll talk about the books you guys have written as well. So thanks again,

welcome. And I’m so happy we have this opportunity to speak about such an important topic at such

a momentous time and especially that we can do this together in person. Okay. So kicking things off

just to help create context and paint the picture, you know, talking about the picture behind us.

We’re here at the Guitianum. What is the Guitianum? And what’s so special about this place where we’re

currently sitting together? Well, the Guitianum is obviously a building because we can see it,

it’s shaped and concrete and it’s huge. It’s kind of huge building and it’s like sculpture,

it’s a special language in architecture, I would say. And it has been built, this one, this

Guitianum from 1925 to 1928. So it’s quite one century old. And this one is the second building

that has been on the very same place, a first one and it was in wood and it burned down. And then

it has to be reshaped in a very, let’s say, seen from outside different way. But

the architecture is Rudolf Stein and he said it’s the same but expressed in another material and in

another language of forms. So this is the aspect of the building and yeah, the first purpose

has been to have a theater. They have been placed written by Steiner and others and they became

used at this time to play them and they have been in different theaters, mainly in Munich.

And then they had the idea, let’s do something like this for our own. And yeah,

there has been an owner here of this land and he offered this to Steiner in order to build this

building and to have a kind of center for entropy first with the arts and then became more and

more with science. And actually we call ourselves a school for spiritual science and perhaps you

can introduce this aspect of what it is about the Godiano. This school of spiritual science is

like a university, so to say, with different departments, we say section 12, different sections.

And for example, we are leading the, co-leading the section for agriculture, but we have colleagues

in the same building, in a small building near the Godianoom in the campus of the Godianoom.

We have also the scientific section and then we have also social section, section for pedagogy,

medical section and other art, different art sections and so on. And sections are there for

research and also training and development coordination. And maybe one more aspect of the Godianoom,

if we say Godianoom, we should really see that it’s, we have a campus, more or less 10 hectares

with a garden. It’s really something between a farm and a garden because we have cows,

we have sheep, we have the big vegetable garden, we have flowers and we have also something

like a park. So the Godianoom has also really landscape around itself. And it’s here in Donna,

maybe I would say the biggest garden from the village. So it’s also an open place for everybody

from the region to come the garden to go in the Godianoom, it’s totally open to everybody.

Yeah and it’s so absolutely beautiful. I had the opportunity to walk around a bit this morning

to experience the garden, the plants, there’s so much vitality in the landscape and obviously

you know many of our friends with biodynamic farms and gardens back in Colorado and elsewhere

in North America have this same type of experience where the vitality is really enhanced.

And I’m wondering, Jimmy Schell, if you could tell us a little about the history, the impulse

of the biodynamic work particularly and how that got started, why that got started,

and why maybe it’s important for our times now and what we’ll talk more about this obviously.

It’s interesting that

Steiner was asked about a lot of topics from different people around him. So about pedagogy,

about medicine and then the last one or some of the last one where the farmers

they asked him and said yeah but with your insights maybe you could give very interesting

principles for the farming for the future connected to the respect of life of all living beings

because it was the core aspect and it’s strange because we could think 100 years ago

nature was okay everything was okay there was no real big ecological movements like now I mean

the challenges were not really big connected to the questions of ecology yeah it was more

industry and so on social questions for sure and so on inflation and so but these farmers and

these people not only farmers and also researchers and other people they asked really Steiner can

you give some insights for farming for the future for the earth and for the food of people for

to have a quality high quality food for the people also and it was really the beginning of

by dynamic farming 100 years ago in 1924 and it was not that the Geferno Steiner gave a course

eight lectures in Poland this place is now in Poland in Covid and there more or less 130 people

came together and they had eight lectures and also answers and so on and out of this it was

the beginning of an association of farmers and they developed step by step by dynamic

farming and now we have it all over the world then yeah very beginning incredible it’s such a

large movement with so much momentum now and really really it’s interesting to talk about

bio dynamics with folks who aren’t yet familiar with some of the practices and techniques and

I often describe it as a folks as a very advanced form of organic agriculture and land stewardship

pulling from indigenous traditional folk and esoteric knowledge and wisdom and what I also remember

hearing that part of why the farmers were asking Steiner to provide some insight is that this is

the beginning of the chemical agriculture that has now obviously proliferated and caused so

many challenges for us worldwide and I’m wondering if if you could give us a bit more

context and adding to what Jomi Schell has said and take us in the direction of what’s

different about the practices compared to other modes of organic agriculture yeah yeah so I mean

we look back to perhaps centuries of what we call actually traditional agriculture and this has

been hard work and food security has not been given and traditional means you do the same that

you’re fathered it and there is no reason to do it other than to do it again as the former

generation have done it and then science natural science developed we know from 15th century on

in the Western civilization and in the let’s say then 19th century this new science approach

also came to agriculture and there then chemicals have been yeah the science who could explain

how it works how plants they grow how they root and what they do with the roots in the soil this

was very new very new and then this has been a kind of breaking up with tradition and then this

became industry yeah what all has been science became industry and so we have important dates are

1840 with used to sleepic chemical man from Germany and he describes the nutrition phenomena

with minerals for the plant and this then became industry in the first world war where the fabrics

for the artificial nitrogen has been built up first it was for war the war was over and then they

sold this to the to the farmers and in this very moment the question has coming to Rudolf Schneiner

is this the way to go is this the future and then he opened this other path yeah but being

scientific that he’s he names it spiritual science so this is kind of yeah special because either

you’re a spiritual or scientific or scientific but to do to say a spiritual science and this is I

would say a kind of strength of Anthroposophy that it’s both well this is not so much our subject

now but out of this dream came this lectures for for farming and okay we take on what has been

past-practic by tradition we do many things which organic people also do and then we do some more

because Schneiner said okay artificial nitrogen we don’t take pesticides we don’t take

and this was not in the in not really there but GMO we don’t we will not do but how can we then do

is it just enough to go back and to do traditional farming and he said no we have to create a

future but not with materialistic science and techniques with a kind of spiritual science

and technique coming out of it and therefore we have a set of principles and practical things we

do in bi dynamics and this differs us from from others at the very best known and the very

that’s a most characteristic is what we call our preparations we can talk about if you like but

so far for a historical situation yeah it’s so wonderful and I’m smiling ear to ear because

you know so many friends we make preparations together it’s such a joy coming together in

community when we’re making the preparations and then also when we’re applying stirring and applying

the preparations and I’ll just mention we’ve we’ve had several other deer friends on the podcast

talking about different aspects of this and we’ll include references in the show notes we recently

spoke with Sheila Foster the executive director of the botanemic demeter alliance and we actually

talked with Lynn Boutsa a couple of years ago and Theo Maria Carlson Pat Frazier Stephanie

Seisen Brook Levan at sustainable settings where I used to work almost 20 years ago and

yeah there’s there’s you know we have we have so many friends and colleagues engaging in

regenerative agriculture in permaculture in tools and techniques that aren’t necessarily getting

into the depths of the spiritual the heart the mind the will and one of my favorite quotes from

Schneider that I know translated into English I’m going to probably include in the show notes about

the importance of connecting the the mind the will and implicit the heart for human beings especially

in these times any speaks about this there’s a real sense of of going way beyond the building blocks

of nutrition as understood in a chemical sense and getting into some of the deeper subtler and

perhaps not as as well understood quite yet aspects of what it really means to be a human being

alive on planet Earth yeah can tell us pull that thread through and just tell us a little about

the preparations and for some of our audience who maybe isn’t familiar with yeah but just

taking on this what does it mean to be man on human beings on earth humanity on earth and I

will just link up to the upcoming conference we will have here at the Guadianom where our

big hole has thousand places so we hope that we will be full and the title yeah how do you set

up right 100 years of something yeah you you you are looking for to for to yeah to find the point

where it is yeah and so we found the point in a way that we set Sun Earth Man this is the title

and this Sun Earth Man yeah this relation is a short form it’s just the terms of a kind of

Earth and the Earth goes like this from Sun through the Earth’s four man this is the first part

yeah may man become Sun for the Earth and I would say in this gesture in this double

gesture we have what it is about yeah that the Sun shining and bringing her warmth and light to

the dark at fertile Earth makes growing the plants and we have our food and then came the second

thing that we cultivate this given nature we are in our view co-creators of an Earth then which

yeah has an inner Sun in some way and this is our working with our hands guided by spirit

heart and hands and this came very clearly to appearance with the preparations where we create

out of the kingdoms of the given nature new substances which we introduce in our farm organisms as

we call them so not farm systems farm organisms meaning a living being and then with the preparations

there in this living being has new capabilities or to connect with cosmos or to connect with the

Earth and for to be let’s say open for for the humans and yeah we always take something which

came from the plant kingdom we take something which came from the animal kingdom and then we

make a kind of composition with the seasons will you describe one of the preparations

oh that’s an example there is one which is interesting maybe easy little bit easier to understand

it camomile and the camomile is a plant a matricle a matricaria with putita that I name because

there are a lot of similar plants but it grows on a very hard soil actually on a mineral soil

without life the soil is totally dead without breathing and it’s interesting because it’s a very

this plant is very not dense not hard but it grows it’s an annual plant and it grows always

further and further and further and grows in the space and build leaves and more leaves and more

leaves but the leaves are really I do say they are little bit they are not hard they are really

they give the possibility to the air to go through to the play really with the air they play with

they are really like bracing and in the soil the camomile has also a lot of roots in every direction

and it’s a similar picture the roots of the camomile they are going in every direction and bring

they bring air in the soil so to say and because they are really helping this soil and this very

hard soil it’s like concrete and now with these roots you get like a bracing and this plant

bring something like a rhythm in the soil the air can go in the soil if there is too much water

in the soil it can go outside so there is really all the elements are mixed together

through the camomile so it’s the first picture so to understand the preparations we have to

look where the plants are leaving and what they do on the place where they are growing and then we

make a big step and we make something like sausages with the with the flowers we take the best

out of the development of the camomile these small flowers and they smell very nice and we know

they have a specific quality also for baby skin and so on they are very good against every kind

of inflammation also for bracing especially for the guts and it’s the connection

that means if I have a gut problem so I cannot really digest take camomile tea 10 minutes after

it’s gone also for small babies and you can also use it from outside on the on the belly

and then if you and now we make sausages not with meat but we make the same we take

animal guts and we put the flowers in it but maybe you can understand the connection

we take the organs which can be healed through these plants and so we enhance the capacity

of the plant through this preparation and then we put these sausages in the soil in autumn

and they are like during the winter in the in the soil and there is a transformation and in spring

you take these small sausages out of the soil you have to be very careful because the sausages are

more or less destroyed and you have really to find the the plants because they are really transformed

and it’s one of the preparations and we put a very small amount in the compost it’s really not a

question of a lot of sausages it’s really a very small amount like a ramedine almost like homie

pathachs yes yes so big compost that you put not that time yep you know jameshaw I’m I’m

I’m elated I’m overjoyed you chose the camomile okay for me this is a very important symbolic

gesture also with the relationship with mercury and the hermetic arts and you know we’re gonna

we’re gonna pull the conversation back to the incredible conference coming up in February of 2024

marking the 100 year anniversary and also through all of this is very practical work being done for

soil regeneration climate stability resilience nutrition for people justice and with Rudolph

Steiner we have the opportunity to run down some pretty exciting rabbit holes

including getting into some of the esoteric sciences and in the rose accrucian practices for

example in some of the other initiatic traditions there there is this body of of work of practice

around the hermetic arts around the above and the below around the the healing and so many of our

modern symbols even for things like medicine come from these traditions and I’m wondering if

one or both of you might reflect a little on some of the very esoteric aspects of Steiner’s

work his knowledge and how that has influenced this this work being done now in our world

do you want to? Yes as I already said he took together science and spirituality and various

the bridge where is the bridge between science and spirituality and for him it’s the thinking

the thinking who is in the same time let’s say the main tool in modernity for to create this

abstract and methoristic view of the world he says we should not go out of the line of the thinking

but we cannot or we can do with something with the thinking we can try to hold it on that’s not

always one thought is just creating the other one yeah this is how it works in us we can observe

it’s a machine which is always it’s going on without my will so can I interfere with my

own personal will in my thinking and for example hold it on shape it move it transform it

and when you do this you can say this are exercises which lead to something which then at the end

can be can be named as a meditation and there came the link with the old traditional let’s say

spiritual spiritual approach and this makes this wonderful thing that you are master

of your spirituality you are not just open up and let the godness take you on you master but you

Biden you’re thinking in a way that you really create the space where something other

then let’s say the physical world can appear and can be seen and can be then related on

so perhaps this as a first approach it’s not to go under the consciousness it’s to go a step

above the normal consciousness but by let’s say training and exercising which is

completely in my hands and I could add because also in the conference in February we have to

each year we take one small text from Steiner the last text text he wrote at the end of his life

the name is Michael later and we will present one text and it’s very interesting because

in this text Steiner describes four four steps of consciousness four steps of

relationship between human beings and world on nature and the world and the universe one can say

and in the first step step he explains that the human beings were fully connected and they got

the wisdom directly from outside at the look at the plant they got the wisdom but without any

reflection without any effort so and for example in the and then it goes all nine the second step

they didn’t perceive directly the wisdom or the gods as it was said with the old words

I can say it also wisdom but we cannot say yeah gods so on step it was more the expression of

the gods what they are doing but not really connection with and so step by step until now

human beings disconnect actually from this wisdom spiritual wisdom all around and now

we have to think as Woody said we have to think and we are free to think but the question is how

we think if we think too quick and without really looking without making this kind of meditative way

then we yeah it’s like this machina which is going on and then we go to artificial intelligence

yeah it could be the way the other way would be to stop and really think on a different way

one can say and Steiner gives a very interesting thing he says we should not only think with the

head but more with the heart also together that means I look at a plant for example but I try

also to feel but we need to use my feelings as perception organs that means I don’t put my

feelings on the plant I like this plant wonderful no I look it in a very objective way and I wait

until some feelings are coming to me by looking at the plant and then we can see every plant

gives us a specific kind of feeling so it’s not only looking and thinking but also thinking

with the heart so it could be the step for the future and to reconnect with nature on a very

conscious way but we need to reconnect because we need it really now we have in such a situation

a totally disconnected I mean I think every of us knows much better what is the news from the

other side of the world but we don’t know which plants are growing in front of our door so it’s

a pity I don’t say it’s not good to know what is happening on the other side of the world but

there where we can make something in our garden in front of our door we should know this we

should observe this we should think about our place our village our farm our forest our

region yeah absolutely and as hundreds and thousands and millions of us are more deeply engaging

in this practice starting at the root the center of the home the family the community this is

the gesture that scales worldwide here comes an aircraft to we have church bells and aircrafts

and all kinds of good things going on and you know in in this time we have also of course the issue

of soil regeneration carbon sequestration climate stabilization and I’m I’m really curious

how how many do we have an idea how many biodynamic farms are there worldwide and and how you know

what’s a way we can sort of convey to our friends in our audience how big and robust this movement

is already yeah it’s big and small in the same time depends how you church it and it’s robust

and shake in the same time we have a certification for what we do we call it

diameter certification it’s it’s a trademark then for the products in the market and we have

about eight to nine thousand certified operations in the world agricultural operations

and then we have I would say the same number of really concedes operations which are not

certified because they are in places where there is no market or for example the wine growers

did they have another way to sell their their bottles so this means we are about perhaps 20

thousand and then we are a perhaps a 20 thousand more with all small holders they are grouped

in projects where they are thousand two thousand or five thousand together doing perhaps

yeah a crop which they can sell with a cooperative let’s say coffee or cotton or something like

this and they have one or two hectares for their family and they do bi dynamics even when the

product and is certified organic and is sold as such so I would say we are perhaps on 40 thousand

places we are really active and consistently with bi dynamics and then we have many gardeners

and small holders people involved let’s say with the other aspects of bi dynamics which goes

then to transformation of the basic products goes to the the value chain and the different steps

like this until cooks yeah we have chiefs of very famous chiefs they rely on bi dynamic fruit

for to do their art if you like yeah yeah yeah you know at sustainable settings biodynamic ranch

where I used to work near Aspen Colorado we have some of the finest restaurants in Colorado

in North America and many of the chefs there say only the biodynamic produce has the depth

and complexity of flavor they can’t get it elsewhere and so that this gets into some of the

quality the nutrition the the life force the vitality I mean maybe we can speak about that a little

bit also yeah but please because it’s you know quality of food and wine is coming from France

yeah it’s really the case and we were even as bi dynamic association in France we were surprised

as a first dinner came to us and said but you have a very interesting method we we get really

better wines with this if we do a good job for sure and so some now I can say some of the best

wines of the world in France but now more in more and more countries are working with bi dynamic

and the interesting aspect is that they came for big part they came to bi dynamics really

through tasting first so even blind tasting on so on or tasting the wine from the colleagues

huh on the cooling is doing biodynamics it’s a little bit strange what he is doing yeah very early

in the morning he’s priced something on his grapes and so and then you ask and he says yeah it’s

only four grams of silica so you think it works and then the the colleague asks and the

windows says please look at my wine how step a year after year how it’s yeah how does it taste

and so we could really convince a lot of windows through tasting through looking at the situation

but also looking at the soil now for sure looking also at the the soil is better the plants are

hands here and you know the the wine plants they are always in actually you have to spray so much

so every time you you you spray less and if you can with his spray more and more with the

plants instead and at the end stop with any kind of chemical then you are so happy for your

nature for your landscape because wine is really of one of the most intensive

culture with so much pesticides so that means also from this side it’s really important but I

would say a lot of people discovered bi dynamics a lot of windows through tasting I even had a

student I ask when I have a student somebody dynamic student they want to learn two years long

so it’s a long study and why are you there and one said yeah I like the wines and I discovered

this very good quality then I thought I have to study this so interesting yeah fabulous yeah I

love this let me remind our audience this is the why honors community podcast I’m your host

Aaron William Perry today we are visiting at the gatiana in Switzerland with the co-directors

of the section for agriculture here John Michel Flajard and Wiley Hulsey Wiley Hulsey Wiley Hulsey

and I want to take a quick moment to thank a few of our sponsors who make this podcast series

possible this includes Chelsea Green Publishing we have a great partnership with them you can use

the code yoe35 at Chelsea Green to get a 35% discount on their books and audiobooks and in fact

many of their authors are engaged in biodynamics also so there’s a lot of cross fertilization going

on here literally and figuratively um perium organic superfoods wheylay waters biodynamically

grown have been fused aroma therapy soaking salts this is actually a social enterprise why on

earth community runs to help fund our work our friends at profitable purpose consulting earth

hero sustainable products soil works biodynamic garden preparation earth coast productions and of

course a very special thank you to all of our ambassadors and especially those who have chosen to

give in our monthly giving program and if you’re interested in giving on a monthly basis you can

go to winer.org and select the donate button to select whatever level works well for you

if you choose $33 or greater and if you’re in the United States we’ll send you a jar of the

Wiley water soaking salts each month as a thank you and also for self-care and we promised we would

talk a bit about the video culture and we’ve done that and and I want to also talk about the

Gutian botany um but first want to make sure to emphasize the importance of this upcoming conference

in February 2024 um the 7th through the 10th you can go to agriculture-conference.org to get

information on this to register um get more details and so on also uh for general information you

can go to section-landvietshop.org slash EN if you’re looking for English and we’ll include

the links in the show notes of course um and and more broadly there’s an opportunity to

become a member of and or connect to the general anthroposophical society which is one of the

other uh global web works emanating out from the Gutian nom so lots of ways to connect in

and uh very excited about the upcoming conference of marking the 100-year anniversary of

the agriculture lectures the biodynamic movement and so maybe as a moment to ground this into an

even uh uh an impulse that’s even further back in history the impulse of Gerta uh he has given

so much to our world in philosophy and literature etc what is it about the the impulse from Gerta

that is now alive and uh activated through biodynamics and through the legacy of Rudolph Steiner?

I think that the very interesting aspect from Gerta we we really use one can say in uh by the

dynamic agriculture is this specific look uh not only on the on nature like things but that he could

really uh look at the plants as the animals as um as living beings and it seems to be easy but

it’s really not easy in the daily life mostly very often we speak about resources if we speak

about plants but they are not resources they are beings they are living beings so they they have

their own dignity but everybody can think in every situation how do I deal with my plants?

I deal with my plants I ask myself are they good for me are they bad for me but it’s very egoistic

it’s possible but first we have to give the plants and the animal their own dignity that means to

look at them as as living beings and for this Gerta could really make uh open a way how to look at

the plants as living beings for example for the plants if you want to understand them as living

being you have to look at them in their context in the space where they are living what I try to

explain with the camomila I describe the camomile in the context yeah not on the table not

cut in small pieces yeah and also in the development in time because a plant such being like a plant

is actually the being in time you have to look at all steps of development the life yeah if you

look at the life and you try inside so to say to oh you try to follow these steps and then

you come in a flow of life and then you see a plant is not a thing it’s a process in time it’s a

very different and then you can ask what are the consequences for breeding and so on and then we

could speak about GMOs and so on because if you make GMOs you make this if you think the plants

like machines and you can take a part and put a better part but the plants are not machines

they are processes and you process if you want to work with processes you can transform the plant

our breeders do this but they do they do this outside in the fields and in time and they help

the plants to develop their own potentiality not transforming like a machine so it makes a huge

difference and one can say it’s really good abroad with an ethical view on nature and nature

and human beings yeah beautiful I perhaps to add yeah he was this kind of scientist yeah for life

and he is also very known as a writer yeah yeah and he’s let’s say

chef chef chef so his masterpiece is called Faust yeah yeah that’s how I’ve listened yeah wow

and Faust is the dramatic story of of himself and he is a professor so he is a scientist

and he came about that he with this kind of science he is out of life and then Mephisto came

Mephisto is kind of a appearance of what is the bad or the devil and he says oh you look

I can help you enter in life maybe you make young you can meet nice girls right yeah ready

Faust and so he goes and he does his journey he goes on his journey through life and it’s very

dramatic yeah people die there is a war and they do they they invent money yeah so kind of

bitcoins at the time and so on and at the end he is an old man and it’s the moment of

yeah of dying in this question now is he on the side of the devil or on the side of let’s say

heaven and it’s not so clear it shakes a little bit and then yeah his soul can go to heaven

because margarita great him yeah is is there and and and helps to him so good there is also a

bigger viability that takes us in on super the eternal feminine how it gets into the eternal

feminine so good is also the right of the modern typology of biography of which concerns as oh

and therefore the good eternal behind us is also built huh we do good as Faust each second year

in full length wow so when is the next one next one is next summer cool next summer so go on the

web page of the good eternal we will find it and I can tell you it’s great it goes for days and days

and it’s all about it’s very colorful light and it’s with you with me and it’s in music so it’s

really a complex play and yeah this is also good so it’s not out of modern times it’s really

how can we as modern beings find our path towards our self meaning towards yeah let’s say the

reality of our existence on earth but not forgetting heaven absolutely beautiful absolutely beautiful

look I know you both have a very busy day with meetings and I heard church bells on

last track of what time we have and want to honor your schedule before we wrap up the episode of

course we can talk for days and I hope to come back and have more opportunity for example in

February for the conference yeah if you liked you could meet just some money of our people yeah

and yeah and of course you’re both authors and before we wrap up if you want to share a bit about

your books briefly maybe you can and I’m handing you this one that you wrote but more than anything

I want to make sure to give you each the floor if there’s any final remark you’d like to share

with our audience before we conclude today so I take the occasion to present this little booklet I did

together with someone other and it’s about by dynamics in a very let’s say popular way yeah in

in a vocabulary which is really accessible for I hope everyone and the subtitle is yeah the

birth moment of by dynamics as a source as a root as a starting point for the eco movement throughout

the 20th century so we feel ourselves happy that we are what we are and that we have the

term and the identity of by dynamics and they made a bet we feel also very very connected

to all other eco movements to all other people and all other strivings for yeah to practice

alive in farming and in others which really respect our earth as a living being and that we make

ourselves capable to co-create the future and the partnership between humans and the earth beautiful

amen I hope beautiful yeah I think it was a good answer to say yeah I don’t want to add so much I

want really to invite all of you to come to our conference if you can because it’s always a very

yeah very important time by all people from I think more than 50 countries are coming together all

continents and it’s also for us very important to say the by dynamic agriculture was given 100 years

ago but now step by step it could really develop all over the world and we have

and we developed further this agriculture is not yeah it was the first principles were given but

now it’s something like a string transformation and going further and further and we need really

this sharing this conference is really important to be in touch and to really work on the big challenges

we have now so it’s not something which is fixed is something we did always in transformation

and then for this we need everybody and all friends all people were involved to come together and

to share so very well welcome to the conference this year or the next yeah

yeah I was because I should have done it yeah this is wonderful thank you so much and

we really thank you thank you thank you thank you very much it’s wonderful to have this

opportunity to visit with you and for now goodbye everybody the why on earth community stewardship

and sustainability podcast series is hosted by Aaron William Perry offer thought leader and executive

consultant the podcast and video recordings are made possible by the generous support of people

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