An Update
The present of JPI and its unfolding future
Biodynamic agriculture as we know it is almost 100 years old. The Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics (JPI) itself is almost 40. Conceived by Hugh Courtney, the institute’s founder and long-time master preparation maker, JPI began life as an organization in 1985, and its transformation continues to this day. Under Hugh’s guidance, biodynamic agriculture in the United States found a foothold with farmers and gardeners, growing its presence over nearly four decades. The organization's process of rediscovering itself continues in new and exciting ways every year.
Through inspiration and experimentation, trial-and-error, and the application of the alchemical imagination of Steiner and those who preceded him, Hugh and others paved the way for where JPI stands today. JPI continues to investigate and discover new ways of deepening the instructions given by Rudolf Steiner to farmers in 1924 in the form of The Agriculture Course.
Image: 2023 rhizobox experiments at the JPI farm in the style of Jochen Bochemühl
Image: JPI President Mike Biltonen and Creative Director Stewart Lundy in a staring contest at the 2022 Virginia Biological Conference
Biodynamic farming is not just another style of regenerative farming or Organic 2.0. It involves concepts and practices that go beyond the mere “doing” of something. At its core, biodynamic farming isand gardening improves the health of the planet and human nutrition through soil revitalization, and provides a contemplative farming practice that, more than just improving the land, improves and deepens the nature of the farmer who practices it.
Whether a backyard garden or ten thousand acres, biodynamics is scalable. As an approach, it encourages the farmer to look deeply at his or her relationship to the farm and Earth, and to learn from it in ways that enrich and enliven the souls of both. Lest there be any confusion, biodynamics is not an instant answer to bad or destructive farming and gardening (e.g., the use of synthetic pesticides or fertilizers). Biodynamics takes time, commitment and patience, and is a balanced approach of will-force and intellect. It is the confluence of secular and esoteric sciences and thought that creates something stronger and more meaningful than that of the individual parts. A farmer who pays more attention, cares more, and does the right thing is a lot more likely to get a better result. In a way, anyone doing that is already a long way down the right path whether or not they call it “biodynamic.”
Image: Chroma 8/3/23; Sample: 2022-2023 horn manure 1.5g in 150 mL 0.5% NaOH, from 2022 burial
As the Earth’s matrix is healed, the farmer is also repaired. Steiner knew this when he first provided the Agriculture lectures 100 years ago next year. And Hugh Courtney knew this when he first dreamed of an organization that could help anchor biodynamic agriculture in the United States.
This does not mean that the path forward has been or necessarily will ever be easy or clear. As human evolution has been difficult, agriculture fell from relatively balanced naturalistic approaches to materialistic farming and must now undergo a rebirth by recalling the spiritual foundations of agriculture. But as winter gives the appearance of going backward as leaves fall, the decay of winter provides rich fertility for the new growth of spring. Similarly, the apparent “regression” into materialism has provided us with the scientific method, which, when put in loving service of humanity, becomes an ennobled pursuit.
Image: Left: objective movement of planets; Right: subjective movement of planets with apparent retrograde motion; Image Source: "Apparent retrograde motion" by user:cleonis in the english wikipedia is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5.
When it appears that a planet in the sky goes “retrograde,” it is only because of how the Earth moves relative to the retrograde planet. In reality, every planet is only ever moving forward. Once Hugh passed responsibility for the organization on to others, as often happens, those others brought a renewed vision–renewed because it was different–and new hands to the work.
The changes in the management forms of an organization are permeable, but as a leaf leaps to a flower in an abrupt moment, organizations can suddenly express in their form latent changes long desiring to emerge. As a young child is growing, it is “thinking” itself into being. Only later does thought become liberated and more self-aware. Organizations change as our bodies do, striving toward ever-greater actualization. As with all of us, JPI is an ongoing project of human becoming. With enough time behind us, and plenty in front of us, JPI is now at a place where it can both be circumspect and can plan for the future as a mature organization.
One of the biggest changes we have made is our renewed commitment to embodying the ideal of the farm organism. In early April 2020, and for some time prior, we began talking about the need for cows on the farm. For the next few years and many prior to that we had been obtaining manure for our 500 horn manure preparation from neighboring pastured cattle that would graze JPI land. This year we’ll get all of the manure we need for 500 and barrel compound from our own cows eating grass and pooping on-site at JPI.
Introducing cows – or any livestock – onto a farm is no small consideration. Locating and transporting suitable cows took us a year and was only possible after the hiring of our current preparation maker and farm manager, Ben Nommay. But arrive they did.
Image: cows at the JPI farm and one of our new calves born on the farm
We are also in the process of migrating our preparation burial sites to more appropriate locations, expanding our biodynamic herb gardens, as well as fine-tuning the process for our Pfeiffer™ Field and Garden spray. Dusting off hundreds of pages of Pfeiffer’s hidden notes in the JPI vault, we discovered Pfeiffer’s references to things he wished he could locate to include in the Pfeiffer™ Compost Starter. Pfeiffer says that if these specific forces can be isolated, “they should be added.” JPI has brought the Pfeiffer™ products up-to-date with some of the fruitful insights of secular scientific research, allowing the further unfoldment and improvement of the biodynamic arsenal.
JPI is conducting on-farm research to continue to assess preparation quality and its effects on plant growth. We are expanding our educational opportunities in the post-COVID world, and we are finally getting to the jumping-off point for on-farm housing that we envision leading to the creation of a larger dynamic facility where we will teach, research, and house visitors, board members, staff, and enthusiastic supporters of biodynamic agriculture.
And if that isn’t enough metamorphosis, JPI is moving away from its printed format for Applied Biodynamics, which has been published continuously since Hugh first created it in 1994. Applied Biodynamics is being reincarnated in digital form hosted on Substack, which allows us to reach a larger audience while at the same time significantly reducing publishing costs.
We’ve already developed a lineup of authors inside and outside of JPI interested in publishing pieces on biodynamic farming. Our last published issue of Applied Biodynamics will be in early 2024 on the eve of the 100th anniversary of Steiner’s lectures. We still have plenty of back issues to sell and distribute, in case anyone is interested. We are planning a comprehensive compendium of all back issues at some point in the future. See JPI’s website for more information.
At the heart of all of this has been the JPI’s volunteer Board of Directors. Board members through the years have worked through thick and thin to help JPI bring the philosophy of biodynamics and biodynamic preparations to an ever-growing audience. Despite some turbulent times, we have arrived at a strategic point where we are now acting on many of the things we’ve been talking about for the past years while still keeping the vision of those who came before and our other biodynamic elders as a guiding light.
Almost one hundred years ago, a small group of people concerned with the decline of nutritional quality in food convinced Steiner of their need for answers concerning how to improve their soils, crops, and food. Once again, nearly 100 years later, we have arrived at a time that begs us to think about the future we are leaving for the next generations.
The answer to the so-called food crisis is not more production, but, rather, expansive thought and innovative farming and food distribution action. Biodynamic agriculture represents the next level of farming and gardening through its connection of spirit and earth, as it involves far more than placing a seed in the ground and watching it grow. As someone a bit smarter than most of us once said, “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” How do we think in new ways? How do we rethink agriculture? How do we rethink biodynamics without prejudice as if encountering it for the first time? These are all things we must consider as we contemplate a healthy future for humanity.
JPI, like biodynamic preparations, is ever-transforming, asking deeper questions and taking on greater pursuits, asking how we can bring biodynamic farming and gardening to a broader audience committed to the health of humanity and the salvation of Earth. Please join us as we embark on this crazy, cosmic journey and begin to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of biodynamic agriculture.