How is it going to be good?
On February 2, the annual meeting of the Section for Agriculture started. The topic: ‹Quality through biodynamics›. How can Demeter agriculture maintain and increase its high and highest quality from the soil to the finished product?
Those working in the biodynamic agriculture and food industry are looking for answers. A conversation with the three people responsible: Jasmin Peschke, Ueli Hurter, and Jean-Michel Florin. The questions were asked by Wolfgang Held.
How did you decide on the topic of ‹quality› for this year’s annual conference?
Ueli Hurter The topic of ‹quality› is one of the core questions of biodynamic agriculture, which is why we always dedicate ourselves to the question of quality, the internal content. With Jasmin Peschke’s research on nutrition and the publication of the book ‹Vom Acker auf den Teller› (From the field to the plate), the topic of quality became the center of attention.
Jean-Michel Florin Biodynamic agriculture has been growing steadily for several years. This is gratifying! Not only is the number of farms growing, but the farms themselves are also growing strongly in some cases, and production and processing are becoming more professional and efficient. Of course, the farms keep asking themselves how they can maintain the high quality and not lose it to higher efficiency.
Does this concern the tension of quality and quantity?
Florin Yes, they don’t have to be opposites! At the conference, farmers will show how we can improve the quality of food with the preparations. That’s where it gets specific! Gardeners and winegrowers who grow medicinal plants and wine and are familiar with the subtle quality issues, show us how to train your own perception and actually influence the sensually perceptible quality with the preparations. That’s what the winegrowers say, but why shouldn’t this apply to all products?
We then see the quality on the plate. That’s a question for you, Jasmine, as a nutritionist.
Jasmin Peschke Yes, the question of quality prompted the people around Rudolf Steiner to ask for a spiritually-based agriculture. It led to the agricultural course because farmers noticed that soil fertility is declining and the products are losing their quality. In this context of quality, I also understand how Rudolf Steiner expresses himself to Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer asked him about what is now called the action gap. How is it that people study and gain spiritual insights, but still don’t act accordingly, do not take any initiative? Rudolf Steiner replied that it was due to the diet. The way products are designed, they no longer enable us to lead the spiritual to the physical. Yes, this is a question of quality. And this is why it is also important to take this up at the conference. As we near the hundred-year-mark of the agricultural course and Demeter products will become more and more well-known, especially in Central Europe, where they are present in supermarkets everywhere, it is important that we become aware of the quality at all levels of nutrition.
This text is an excerpt from an article published in the weekly journal 'Das Goetheanum'. You can read the full article on the website of the weekly.
Cover image: Nina Gautier