08/08/2026
Biodynamic farming ❤️
The First Certified Ecological Farming System Wasn’t Organic
It’s not a competition — but it is history.
In 1924, Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner delivered a series of agricultural lectures to farmers concerned about declining soil fertility, reduced seed vitality and animal health.
He didn’t propose a new fertiliser.
💡 He reframed the farm.
🤓 Steiner described the farm as a self-contained living organism — integrating soil, plants, animals and people into a coherent biological whole. These lectures took place at the very beginning of agriculture’s chemical expansion, following the development of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers in the early 20th century.
✅️ By 1928, this approach was formalised under the name Demeter International — now widely recognised as the world’s first ecological certification system. Demeter established defined production standards covering composting practices, livestock integration, biodiversity requirements and on-farm fertility generation. Today, it operates in more than 60 countries.
Why this matters:
• Closed nutrient cycles — fertility largely generated within the farm system
• Soil biology centrality — humus formation and microbial life prioritised
• Whole-farm ecology — agriculture understood as a biological system
🤓 Modern organic agriculture emerged as a formalised movement slightly later (1930s–40s), influenced by multiple thinkers including Sir Albert Howard and Lady Eve Balfour.
Organic standards focus primarily on the exclusion of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. Biodynamics includes this, and also places additional emphasis on whole-farm integration, and resilience.
Nearly a century later, we speak of “regenerative agriculture” and “soil health.”
💡 The underlying insight, as described by biodynamics, remains consistent: a farm is a biological system.
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