Earth Bound

Despite its divisive principles, biodynamic farming could be a solution to the heavy price of industrial agriculture.

- Carlo Fong-luy

Food security and sustainable agriculture are among the defining issues of our time, greatly affecting our individual diets, consumer habits, and farming practices. While the movement to go organic continues to gain popularity, it is important to return to the reasons why we pay so much attention to the providence of our food.

THINKING TWICE

Gil Carandang of Herbana Farms is a proud follower of the laws of nature and dismisses any suggestion that man can ever be master over the natural elements. He cites how the toll of catastrophic typhoons in the past few years has forced many people to question how land is used and to pay closer attention to the environment. Biodynamic farming sprouts from that same sense of awareness and humility before nature.

In the 1920s, at a time when industrial farming methods were disseminating, the multi-talented Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner founded the biodynamic approach that reconciles spiritual and scientific understandings of the relationship between man and nature. His holistic innovation long predates modern narratives of environmentalism and sustainable agriculture. Biodynamic farming takes into consideration all aspects of the ecosystem constituting the farm to optimize fertility and productivity of the soil and to enhance the quality and nutrition of the food grown. There is also a strong emphasis on cooperating with other members of society such as consumers.