Friday, May 1, 2020

Biodynamic Agriculture: Farming in service of life


It was a pleasure to share my views and participate in a beautifully shot short film " Biodynamic Agriculture: Farming in service of life" by Kiss the Ground team. I appreciate the professionalism of the young team of film makers Ben Cowan and Taliesin Black-Brown. Thanks to Erin Sojourner for the introduction.

Biodynamic agriculture has changed my perceptions towards life and environment. The deep ecological concepts facilitated me to understand the fundamental sublime creative principle of life that we see around us. Rudolf Steiner was a mystic and a clairvoyant who studied the eastern philosophies of life. He was very much influenced by the Vedic scriptures and mentions those concepts vividly.

Steiner reiterates the ancient wisdom of viewing nature as an organism that is harmonious, self regulating entity. Unfortunately the 16th century concept of " fallen nature' that considers nature as disorderly and chaotic changed the perception of humans towards nature. It was felt that humans have a reason to control the blind forces of nature. Manifest destiny and dominion of nature became the progressive paradigms during those period. The impacts of of such ignorance can be witnessed even today.

I was fortunate to get introduced to Peter Proctor from New Zealand in 1996 who became my 'guru' in biodynamic agriculture. Peter was a great human being who was passionate about biodynamics and its field applications. The deep spiritual underpinnings of this system of agriculture helps to understand the holistic integrity of creation.

In the past 20 years I have advised large scale projects in organic and biodynamic agriculture in 10 countries across Asia, Europe and the US. It's such a fulfilment to see the transformation that can be seen on soil, health of plants, quality of food and people who are engaged in farming. Food tastes good when it is produced in tandem with laws of nature. Food nourishes not only our body but also our thoughts. There is a old saying " As the food so our mind, as the mind so our thoughts, as our thoughts so our actions". All our actions are due the food that we consume. The quality of food determines the quality of our actions.

I would like to share this beautiful short film "Biodynamic agriculture: farming in service of life" and also a brief conversation during the premiere of this film. Hope you enjoy it !




Biodynamic Agriculture: Farming in service of life




Interview on Biodynamic Agriculture