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The secrets of Koberwitz: The diffusion of Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course and the founding of Biodynamic Agriculture

Paull, John (2011) The secrets of Koberwitz: The diffusion of Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course and the founding of Biodynamic Agriculture. Journal of Social Research & Policy, 2 (1), pp. 19-29.

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Summary

Rudolf Steiner presented his Agriculture Course to a group of 111, farmers and others, at Koberwitz (Kobierzyce, Poland) in 1924. Steiner spoke of an agriculture to ‘heal the earth’ and he laid the philosophical and practical underpinnings for such a differentiated agriculture. Biodynamic agriculture is now practiced internationally as a specialist form of organic agriculture. The path from proposal to experimentation, to formalization, to implementation and promulgation played out over a decade and a half following the Course and in the absence of its progenitor. Archival material pertaining to the dissemination of the early printed editions of ‘The Agriculture Course’ reveals that within six years of the Course there was a team of more than 400 individuals of the Agricultural Experimental Circle (AEC), each signed a confidentiality agreement, and located throughout continental Europe, and also in Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and USA. Membership expanded to over 1000 AEC members (with a lower bound estimate of 1144 members) who were committed to working collectively towards an evidence based, new and alternative agriculture, ‘for all farmers’, which was to be developed into a ‘suitable for publication’ form. That publication milestone was realized in 1938 with the release of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s ‘Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening’ which was published simultaneously in at least five languages: Dutch, English, French, German and Italian.


EPrint Type:Journal paper
Keywords:Organic Farming, Anthroposophy, Goetheanum, Agricultural Experimental Circle (AEC), Count Carl Keyserlingk, Kobierzyce, Poland, Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer.
Subjects: Farming Systems > Social aspects
Values, standards and certification
"Organics" in general > Countries and regions > Australia
"Organics" in general > Countries and regions > Switzerland
"Organics" in general > Countries and regions > United Kingdom
"Organics" in general > History of organics
"Organics" in general > Countries and regions > Europe
Research affiliation: UK
UK > Univ. Oxford
ISSN:ISSN (print) 2067-2640 ISSN (electronic) 2067-9861
Related Links:https://orgprints.org/18836/1/Paull2011KoberwitzJOS.pdf, https://orgprints.org/18809/1/Paull2011KoberwitzEJSS.pdf
Deposited By: Paull, Dr John
ID Code:19518
Deposited On:15 Nov 2011 19:58
Last Modified:27 Apr 2020 12:54
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Peer-reviewed and accepted

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