Networking at European international level under the wing of Wanderschule
(BFDI newsletter February 2025)
In the days before St. Nicholas Day 24 representatives of biodynamic organizations from 12 countries of Northern, Eastern and Southern Europe (SLO, LAT, CRO, UA, EST, SRB, DK, LIT, FIN, GR, CZ and SK) met in Prague at the campus of the Czech University of Life Sciences to continue discussing, inspiring and learning from each other for the further development of the biodynamic movement in their countries.
Every participant has his or her own pathway to biodynamics. It may be a continuation of tradition already set in the family, like in the case of Andreja Videmšek, a Demeter farmer and president of a local Biodynamic Association in Slovenia, or very personal decision like in the case of a biodynamic farmer and market gardener representing Estonia Frank Gundry-White, who came to biodynamics through “healing my connection to something bigger and wholistic – the life of Earth”, or finding biodynamics by looking for a healthy food production method like Sonja Vavken, the president of umbrella organisation of Biodynamic Associations in Slovenia.
Our different paths brought us to Prague for the second time. Eva Gehr, Georg Meissner and Hans Supenkämper, the team of Wanderschule, who was unfortunately this year abandoned by the dear colleague Reto Ingold, led us participants to share successful projects and challenges we have encountered in the past year, and allowed us to look at possible future steps.
Across all countries, there is a strong need to develop a market for Demeter products, which is currently inadequate or virtually non-existent. In many countries we also observe a stagnation in the number of new farmers and a decrease in interest in farming among young people. And so for example Denmark mentioned they would like to focus on attracting young people in biodynamic farming. In this context, the Czech-Slovak organisation mentioned a new paxis-based college for organic and biodynamic agriculture – Farmářská škola (Farm school), that shows the potential to bring young people who are interested in ecology and sustainability into agriculture.
Most of the participants had already met last year, so it was possible to follow their situation over one year. Like for example in Slovenia, where they successfully continue preparing various programs for the public and if possible do not hesitate inviting the ministry of agriculture as well. Example of a successful event was a whole weekend workshop about biodynamics for parents from Waldorf schools (including workshops for the kids to help the parents to be able to come). Another step took for example Croatia where the Biodynamic Association with the name DUGA (Družstvo Za Biološko-Dinamiško Gospodarenje) represented by the president Dr. Dijana Posavec, applied for the membership in the BFDI association.
Words that always touch everyone in the group are those of representatives from Ukraine. This year Yevgeniia Yuschenko, the president of Biodynamic Association of Ukraine mentioned the strong public inclination towards organic and biodynamic agriculture due to its capacity to be self-sufficient and also due to the public need of truly healthy food and soils. Crisis indeed can motivate us to turn towards real values.
Some of the participants were new to the meeting, such as Lina Lasithiotaki working for an organic certification body and representing the Biodynamic Association of Greece. Mrs. Lasithiotaki mentioned she sees biodynamic farming as a part of the solution of the current and future challenges of agriculture, which motivates her to work for the re-development of the biodynamic movement in her country.
While every country faces their special issues it is important for everyone to promote biodynamics. The key way seems to be openness, cooperation and communication, which do not exclude other movements like regenerative, organic or sustainable agriculture. A question arose in this context as well: How to actually make a good introductory biodynamic course?
Another important topic in the program was introduced by Maja Kolar, co-president of BFDI and representative of the biodynamic movement in Slovenia, who described the long lasting and challenging process of securing local inspection and certification in her country. This opened a fruitful discussion out of which the need for simplification and transparency in this area has turned up.
Of course the meeting was also full of the essential life quality, fun and humor. In this context, some of us really appreciated the daring idea of a biodynamic merchandise from Finland, which you can enjoy on this link.
After a three-day meeting filled with talks and thematic inputs, we all take away inspiration and motivation for the next steps for this year. We hope that Reto Ingold looks at us from the other side with great joy as people continue meeting and working on what he has initiated and carried for many years.
On behalf of the participants, we would like to thank Jan Trávníček and Adam Brezáni for the excellent organization of the meeting and we look forward to the next meeting.
Jana Vanickova, Demeter Czech&Slovakia