Applied Biodynamics — Issue 056 (Spring 2007)

Issue 056 is a multi-voice issue addressing food culture, ecological observation, scientific warning signals, and institutional stewardship, unified by an emphasis on learning through lived experience rather than abstraction.

In “Taking Time for Food and Agriculture: The Slow Food Movement through the Eyes of Biodynamics,” Hunter Francis reports on participation in the 2006 Terra Madre conference in Turin, Italy, an international gathering organized by the Slow Food movement. The article situates Slow Food historically as a reaction against fast-food industrialization and culturally as a defense of taste, locality, and food tradition. Francis emphasizes that Slow Food’s foundational principle is pleasure—specifically taste—as a motivator for protection of food systems.

The article draws explicit parallels between Slow Food and biodynamics, not at the level of technique but at the level of evaluation criteria. Biodynamically produced food is identified as aligning with Slow Food priorities through flavor, shelf life, nutritional density, and cultural embeddedness. Francis documents Slow Food’s organizational structure, including local convivia, the Ark of Taste cataloging endangered foods, and Presidia producer-support projects. Terra Madre is described as an interdisciplinary forum involving farmers, scientists, chefs, policy-makers, and indigenous producers, with particular attention given to the challenge of integrating scientific expertise with traditional knowledge.

Importantly, the article explicitly critiques reductionist science when it excludes qualitative variables such as taste and cultural meaning, while still acknowledging the necessity of scientific participation. Biodynamics is positioned as a precursor to the broader agroecological and food sovereignty movements, offering conceptual tools to reconnect material practice with qualitative experience.

“In Memory of Elizabeth Courtney: 1940–2007,” by Nick Franceschelli, provides a reflective biographical account of Elizabeth Courtney’s life and her foundational role in sustaining the Josephine Porter Institute. The article emphasizes that while Elizabeth Courtney was not a biodynamic practitioner in the technical sense, her contribution was structural and human: providing hospitality, domestic stability, organizational continuity, and emotional support that enabled preparation making, education, and outreach to occur. Her work is framed as indispensable but often invisible labor. No institutional claims are made beyond personal testimony and lived experience.

Following this, “New Fund for JPI” announces the establishment of the Elizabeth Scott Courtney Memorial Fund. The article outlines three specific purposes for the fund: land acquisition to secure JPI’s farm property, development of educational infrastructure, and creation of scholarships to maintain accessibility to workshops and training. The fund is presented as a concrete mechanism for institutional continuity rather than as symbolic commemoration.

In “A Field Is a Teacher,” Sharon Carson offers a first-person observational essay documenting ecological succession on a chemically depleted field left fallow for several years. The article traces visible changes in plant diversity, soil cover, animal activity, and landscape character following cessation of chemical agriculture. No preparations are applied; instead, the field is presented as a long-term observational experiment demonstrating nature’s capacity for self-restoration when human intervention ceases. The essay functions as qualitative field documentation rather than prescription.

The issue concludes with “Genetically Modified Genes Found in Honeybees,” by Christy Korrow, reporting on preliminary findings from the Institute for Bee Research at the University of Jena. The article summarizes research indicating transfer of herbicide-resistant genes from genetically modified rapeseed into gut bacteria of honeybees. The report is careful to note scientific caution: the findings were rare, under review, and not yet broadly replicated. Historical context is provided through comparison with earlier GMO research controversies. The article raises concern regarding antibiotic resistance markers and potential ecological implications, while explicitly distinguishing reported evidence from speculation.

Across all contributions, Issue 056 emphasizes attention, patience, and humility—whether in eating, farming, scientific interpretation, or institutional care.

Articles

• Taking Time for Food and Agriculture: The Slow Food Movement through the Eyes of Biodynamics (H. Francis) 
• In Memory of Elizabeth Courtney: 1940–2007 (N. Franceschelli)  New Fund for JPI  
• A Field is a Teacher (S. Carson)  
• Genetically Modified Genes Found in Honeybees (C. Korrow) 

Key Topics Covered

• Slow Food movement principles and organizational structure
• Terra Madre as a global forum for food communities
• Taste and quality as evaluative criteria in agriculture
• Relationship between biodynamics and food culture movements
• Integration limits of reductionist science
• Unseen labor sustaining biodynamic institutions
• Establishment of a memorial fund with defined purposes
• Field observation as an ecological learning method
• Natural succession following chemical agriculture
• Preliminary evidence of GMO gene transfer in honeybees
• Scientific caution and peer-review limits
• Ecological and ethical implications of genetic modification

Citation

Applied Biodynamics, Issue 056, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Spring 2007.