Spring Letter 2023: Historical Development in Agriculture and the Future
Spring Letter 2023
My thoughts on the historical development of agriculture and the future - with the new concepts.
It is incredible that it took 99 years for agriculture and agricultural science to approve the effect of
”Biodynamic Preparations”, as long as they are called Biostimulants and Nitrification Inhibitors.
Is it agricultural advisory services and chemical factories that, after several years of major fungal problems and herbicide-resistant weeds against chemical pesticides for pests, including slug attacks and livestock diseases, now want to market the method as a novelty?
The almost 100 years of experience with Biodynamic methods and documentation have been described as "superstition" during this period, and therefore there has been little interest from science and financial interests.
Biodynamic practitioners were described as fanatics who "ran around with cow horns in the moonlight."
Agricultural advisory services are now confused about whether the method works - hence this information:
- Ridicule, Those who advocate the new view are declared insane.
- Concealment, If the ideas do not disappear - the new is concealed. Lectures and publications are stifled, they try to cover it up.
- Attack. The new view begins to be dangerous for the established. They resort to personal counterattacks, dismiss, persecute, or possibly "burn at the stake" if applicable.
- Suddenly they agree with the new ideas. Not infrequently, it is one of the worst opponents who launches the new idea as their own.
- I have personally been through and experienced the entire list!
Historical development:
Several farmers have asked me about my interest in microorganisms.
I have now worked with microorganisms and their effects for 45 years on my farm and in many other countries.
Why did my interest in microorganisms arise?
I did what I had learned at Dalum Agricultural College with a Farm Manager course, etc. On an adjacent property that was purchased, a pig finishing production with 1000 places was established, and on my birthplace farm, Stågerup Kildegård, a beef cattle herd was established.
Before agricultural college (1964), I had never tried to vaccinate a sick animal - in my newly established pig production, I had to inject medicine into the animals for about DKK 1000 per month.
This led me to think differently and ask questions.
I received good help from Veterinarian Dalby, LVK Hobro, who said: "It's not you who's making mistakes, but you're buying piglets that don't have optimal health when you receive them."
Help from the Farmers' Association Pig Breeding Office in Odense was worthless.
The Pig Breeding Office directly opposed Veterinarian Dalby's instructions on vaccination against transport sickness. It cost me a lot of money due to dead pigs.
Veterinarian Dalby urged me in 1975 to pack a backpack and travel to countries that know about agriculture - This is not working in Denmark!
On my trip to Switzerland, I visited the Oswald Hof farm in the village of Klärsreüti by Lake Constance in 1977.
Here I experienced the biggest shock of my life: Forget everything you think you've learned about agriculture in Denmark!
I met manufacturers of slurry treatment plants with 25 years of jubilee and experience in "Odorless Slurry" with an increase in essential amino acids, the building blocks of protein, which, as residue in livestock manure, can be built up into healthy fertilizer as a biostimulant when the livestock manure is prevented from rotting, as happens in a biogas plant, which is now the "new religion" in agriculture. Here I was made aware of the research institution Goetheanum in Switzerland.
It has been many years since I saw and heard about the damage caused by digested biogas slurry and sewage sludge on the fields. Crops are destroyed. A conventional farmer in East Germany lost 200 hectares of gherkins - an organic farmer lost 150 hectares of gherkins. Both fields were fertilized with biogas slurry. Gherkins are a high-value crop but were destroyed by the fungus Peronospera. The conventional farmer could not save the crop with chemical fungicides. The organic farmer did not use chemical agents and was not familiar with biodynamic methods or biostimulants. The problem with biogas slurry is that when it is spread on the field, it is decomposition bacteria that change the ratio of anaerobic to aerobic bacteria in the topsoil layer, and in this environment, the basis for plant diseases is formed.
Therefore, I repeatedly point out that there are other methods to use in agriculture when chemistry has to give up.
Many livestock herds have problems with Clostridium Botulinum (Botulism), Salmonella, Coccidiosis, Paratuberculosis, Ringworm, and high cell counts in milk. Pig production faces issues with respiratory and intestinal diseases. The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and the Danish Agricultural Agency make many "expensive maneuvers" to eliminate these problems. This is costly for the farmer, and the results are not optimal: many expensive control visits with subsequent fees and fines. All this can be avoided if one begins to understand natural processes and acts accordingly.
It was at the Oswaldhof farm in Switzerland that I first became acquainted with the use of microorganisms, in the form of the farm's own production of biodynamic preparations, which are now being imitated in new methods and are now referred to in modern times as nitrification inhibitors and biostimulants – how fancy.
After a two-week course in Japan on the island of Okinawa in 1995, invited by the EM-Research organization at Ryukyu University Professor Teruo Higa, I discovered that what I learned in Switzerland at Oswaldhof and Goetheanum was the same as what I experienced in Japan.
Professor Higa sent his first trained student, Dr. Aya Okuda, to Denmark, to work with me to teach farmers the application of microorganisms and to disseminate microorganism technology in the EU and Ukraine.
We worked together for approximately 1 year.
Italy was subsequently a large area of work in wine, strawberries, fruit and agriculture.
A farm, located at an altitude of 1000 meters, "Salmstein Biohof" with cattle and pigs, sold Biosa treated slurry in 5-liter containers, to fertilize flower boxes on balconies, at houses and hotels. Price 1€ / liter.
BiosaHerb is a further development of the biodynamic preparations, instructions for which were given by "Dr. Rudolf Steiner's" world-famous Agricultural Course held at the Kobberwitz estate during Pentecost 1924.
As something new, farmers in Denmark must now relate to two new concepts:
1. ”Nitrification inhibitors”.
2. ”Biostimulants”
What is the difference? Why work with two concepts when the function is the same? Is it ignorance?
Biostimulants are what come closest when explaining the methods for building Regenerative Agriculture. It's about restoring "the Earth's Natural Fertility". The method is simple, but one needs to learn a bit about process understanding.
If one does not learn from History, one can learn nothing!
History books describe 6,000 years of agriculture, where methods and experiences were passed down from generation to generation. Farmers, hunters, fishermen, and gatherers lived this way for generations, hence this history of development, which begins approximately 330 years before our common era.
The Greek Philosopher Plato Founded the Academy.
The Academy educated academics.
They all got their food from Farmers, Hunters, Fishermen, and gatherers.
The state was founded, and politicians and privy councillors emerged.
Children of Farmers, Hunters, Fishermen, and Gatherers were employed by the State.
The Church arrived, and the Church's Priest taught people that they were evil.
Courts, Police, and the prison system came to deal with the evil.
They all received their food from Farmers, Hunters, Fishermen, and Gatherers.
Farmers, Hunters, Fishermen, and Gatherers worked themselves half to death, as their young workforce was employed by the State.
A crisis struck the country; drought and famine led to death and destitution for the entire population.
Signs with the word "Crisis" were put up all over the country.
The priest offered a state church prayer for the crisis to leave the country, but the priest's God did not hear him.
Academics, privy councillors, judges, police, farmers, hunters, fishermen, and gatherers all died from the Crisis.
Many years passed, then came a cow. The cow couldn't read that there was a crisis in the country, so it ate its fill every day.
I hope that the many academic professors, who want to remove cows and four-stomached animals based on their academic theories of a climate crisis that does not exist, will understand that global warming is a natural part of the planet's rhythm. Farmers find it difficult to deal with large economic interests in behavior changes and manipulation.
For politically frightened meat-eaters, I would like to point out that cattle live vegetarian lives and transform feed that is not normally part of human nutrition into a high-value food product for humans.
"Cattle burps and farts" are valuable for the microfauna's butterflies, moths, earthworms, and other insects.
We must not forget that cows/ruminants hold the world record in humus formation. When a cow-pat lands in the field with its accompanying biology, an amazing process occurs. With the right light, air, and temperature, it takes no more than 72 hours for valuable lasting humus to form. Furthermore, the cow is born with a "suede jacket" that adapts to the seasons, as well as an excellent "cutting table" at the front, so it can find its own food all year round. All in all, an amazing animal, which unfortunately may be banned in the future in the sacred name of climate.
But our current academics have not understood this system-physiological connection... perhaps due to capital interests?
It's all "agriculture's fault," many politicians and academic professors say.
The sum of this presentation must lead to changes that can save agricultural land and farmers.
Therefore, the term "Biostimulant" is appropriate when the original production of "Biodynamic Preparations" from 1924 cannot be used.
BiosaHerb is produced based on the knowledge established in 1924 by Rudolf Steiner.
Methods have been developed to control unwanted weeds, but they have only been implemented in a few places, as it was easier to buy ready-made chemicals for weed control.
A graduation thesis in "Removal of Wild Oats and Charlock" in 1983 at KVL - The Royal Danish, Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, showed one of the methods that worked but was not further developed.
I participated in the project for 3 years and learned from it that major economic interests prevented method development and dissemination to farmers.
In this project, there is no risk of chemical-resistant plants!
12 years of studies at Goetheanum, the Natural Science and Medical Section, became my background.
For those interested in following that part of my background knowledge and motivation, here is a reading list:
Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course. "Contribution to the Renewal of Agriculture on a Spiritual-Scientific Basis"
In Danish. ISBN:878500 2666. The content can be very difficult to understand with our current way of thinking.
"The Philosophy of Freedom." Dr. Rudolf Steiner. (German) Can be purchased online.
"Fundamentals for an Extension of the Art of Healing." Dr. Ita Wegman. Clinical-Therapeutic Institute Arlesheim, Switzerland. Dr. Ita Wegman & Dr. Rudolf Steiner. ISBN: 3-7274-0270-9 (German only)
"An Earth Saving Revolution." Prof. Teruo Higa. Japan. ISBN: 4-7631-9157-8 C0030 (English)
"Regenerative Agriculture" Dietmar Näeser. ISBN: 978-3-8186-0695-4 (German)
"Sowing Calendar, Maria Thun" Available from the Biodynamic Association, or in health food stores.
Dr. Albrecht Thaer, 1752-1828. Humus theory. Can be read online.
Sincerely
BioFedora Aps.
Knud Dencker-Jensen
+45 4018 0905