Farming around the world is under pressure due to drought. Heatwaves and the absence of rainfall cause dried out soils and threaten to spoil crops. While biodynamic farming cannot change the broader conditions in the short term, it does have experience with shading and with building up humus to store water and increase plant and animal resilience.
In his monthly podcast ‘Living Farms’, Eduardo Rincón, co-leader of the Section for Agriculture, talks to international guests, discussing with them existing paradigms and considering new ways of developing farming so that it serves life in all its manifestations.
A synthesis of studies presented in ‘Living Farms’, the magazine published by the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum, illustrates how biodynamic farming contributes to food quality, animal wellbeing and ecological sustainability.
Farming is facing multiple challenges – economic, ecological and social. One approach to meeting them applied in biodynamic farming is to cultivate communities both in the soil and in the operations.
Anthroposophical visions are being put into practice and developed around the world in business, education, agriculture and medicine. Brands such as ‘Alnatura’ or ‘Sonett’, ‘Waldorf Schools’ and ‘Demeter’ are examples of this and they all contribute to sustainable development, as is illustrated in the compendium ‘On the Earth We Want to Live’, published by Springer Nature.
Fertile soils with a diverse microbiome are an essential prerequisite for providing people with healthy and nurturing food. In promoting and enabling sustainable food systems, biodynamic farming supports the cause of World Food Day on 16 October 2025 which has the theme ‘Hand in Hand for Better Food and a Better Future.’
The spreading of deserts worldwide constitutes a challenge for the earth’s climate and therefore also for plants, animals and humans. Biodynamic initiatives in the Sahara region prove that even deserts can be transformed into living spaces.
The use of specific preparations is a central part of biodynamics, but until recently there had been no scientific explanation for the way they work. Jürgen Fritz, agronomist at Kassel University, Germany, presents a model for the effectiveness of biodynamic preparations in ‘Living Farms’, a journal published by the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum in Switzerland.
Agriculture is under pressure due to climate change, monocultures and soil erosion. Fields are devastated by wars and the earth is poisoned by weapons. Fertile soil is being lost and deserts are spreading. Many farms are struggling to survive. With its action plan for 2025 to 2027, the Goetheanum‘s Section for Agriculture wishes to encourage a sustainable approach to farming.
After six years of development and testing, the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, has handed over study modules on biodynamic farming to Heliopolis University in Cairo, Egypt, as part of a degree programme in organic agricultural science.
The smallholder farmers of indigenous cultures seek to live in harmony with the earth. Biodynamic farming is for them a way of bringing together tradition and innovation to achieve a unity of earth, humans and cosmos.
Farming nurtures human beings. As the world population is growing, the number of people working in agriculture is going down. Biodynamic farming has been trying for a hundred years to offer meaningful and attractive work contexts and to develop solutions for the challenges of our time.
Many people are familiar with Demeter as a brand name but they don’t necessarily know what it stands for. A new magazine – ‘Living Farms’ – published by the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum illustrates the Demeter principles and how they are applied around the world.
Agriculture nurtures human beings, fosters the earth and creates culture. Rudi Bind and Ueli Hurter explore this theme in their book ‘Biodynamic!’ on the ‘birth of biodynamic farming at the beginning of the ecological movement.’
Cows emit methane, a gas that affects climate. This effect does not have to be harmful. From the point of view of biodynamic agriculture, what cows eat, how they are kept and the facilitating of natural cycles can make them carers of land and climate.
Biodynamic agriculture was initiated a hundred years ago, in 1924, pioneering the eco-movement. Today, its dedication to healthy soil and food also provides impulses for a healthy social life. The method is implemented by both smallholders and large biodynamic enterprises.
The earth’s water balance is out of joint. Extreme weather conditions lead to droughts in some instances and to flooding in others. Water itself is not to blame for this situation, rather it is an expression of outer conditions for which human beings are responsible. Jasmin Peschke, head of nutrition at the Goetheanum, points this out on the occasion of World Food Day 2023.
The climate question is keeping governments busy. In their essay ‘Breathing with the Climate Crisis’, Lin Bautze, Ueli Hurter and Johannes Kronenberg show that it is a question that concerns everyone. On the occasion of the UN climate conference COP27 they call for an understanding of the earth as a living organism and partner.
Climate change causes droughts, flooding and crop failures. The Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum sees a possible option for action in the idea of Rudolf Steiner‘s biodynamic farm organism. One feature of this is starting from the individual conditions of a region.
Biodynamic farming produces food of high nutritional quality. Studies prove this to be measurable beyond subjective factors such as taste. The Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum will discuss biodynamic food quality at its online conference.
