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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Alan Chadwick book from Logosophia: Performance In the Garden

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  • From: ecoponderosa <3cedarsfarm AT gmail.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Alan Chadwick book from Logosophia: Performance In the Garden
  • Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:38:52 -0500

On 2/11/2013 10:33 AM, Wyatt Jones wrote:
I'll have to check that out. I've been very impressed by Alan Chadwick,
not so much with Rudolph Steiner though.

like the manure or silca in the cow horn business. I've also

Beneficial soil microorganisms, EM, IM, fungi, mycorrhizae, bacteria, etc. "Preps" or microbial soil innoculants, compost innoculants; there are several BD preps.

Some of my experiences with the Boidynamics people also have been very good
but a lot of them very bad. Seems a lot of them look at Rudolph Steiner

There are many brilliant, creative, skilled, thoughtful BD advocates.
They alone set the biodynamics movement apart from the rest of the world of agriculture. Permaculture does the rest.
There are others whom I will never understand like one regular participant in a bd forum I encountered on facebook who stated that the cia/kissinger/us/chilean military/pinochet were fully justified, even obligated, to mount a military coup in Chile to put that genocidal dictator in power while assassinating the existing leader Salvador Allende, national heroes folk musician Victor Jara and poet Pablo Neruda and their supporters and many political activists, a mounting a campaign of severe political repression to last for years there while similar ones were happening in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and in Central American countries. He maintained that the Chilean Left was getting too entrenched and powerful and needed to be stopped. Some attitude from an alleged card carrying follower of biodynamics usually preaching your typical all sweetness and light love and charity boilerplate. Did he get these notions from Steiner?

as some sort of god and many of them treat biodynamics as some sort of
religion, not open to any sort of questioning, a lot of them literally
showed me the door when I started asking questions about the mechanics
and scientific nuts and bolts of their assertions. Don't even think

Their loss for being close minded.

about talking eastern philosophy to them , I practically got lyched
doing that LOL. Don't get me wrong, I think there is an underlying
basis for a lot of what is taught, like the adding of herbs and other
components to compost for various problems, but the attitude of most the
people I had experience with was a little too much like very religious
stuborn blind faith and a clan mentality which usually clashed with my
attitude of inclusive consideration of possibilities but also of
critical thinking.

There you go, "attitude of inclusive consideration of possibilities"
says it all and is a good path to follow.

Chadwick went well beyond biodynamics in his work and teaching, using only some of its principles. He was a broadminded free thinker and created his own gardening system based on food production methods carried out by humankind around the globe for thousands of years,
with an emphasis on the French system of biologically intensive market gardening and similar methods developed in England, Germany and Switzerland (Howard, King, etc.). During his era he led the way for newly enlightened people who wanted to adopt natural, regenerative methods of home food gardening for their own use and well being and for the health of Gaia. Colleagues of his and present-day advocates of his work include Marc Bonfils, Emelia Hazelip, Masanobu Fukuoka, John Jeavons and Eliot Coleman.

That said I don't believe in throwing the baby out
with the bathwater. Biodynamics would be a lot more helpful without the
smoke and mirrors routine.

The mystery will always be there; it is up to you to discover its value.
Like the world-at-large, lean heavily toward the positive. BD is a religion in that respect as is Permaculture with its system of Three Ethics with similar lessons in Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism,
Buddhism, Taoism.

Sorry for the rant, sorta been through a lot on this subject.

Thanks for posting what you did; it was interesting.





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