BIODYNAMIC vs. ORGANIC
THE ORIGINAL AND BEST
The Biodynamic movement created the first organic certification in the US [Stellar organics] and as you will see below Biodynamic not only adhere to all organic and regenerative standards but surpasses them.
In the words of Biodynamic Farmer Stewart Lundy at the 2024 Chesapeake Area REgional Biodynamic conference:
“We should be aware that Biodynamics is the flame that kindled the whole organic and regenerative movement. All the modern organic gardening methods and certifications have followed in Bioydynamics’ wake. It gets virtually no credit, and is still the smallest and least known, but in the end, it will prevail.
As far as organic certification goes, you can get just the garden certified, but to get Demeter Biodynamic certification it has to be the whole farm.…
Biodynamics does not conceive of the farm as a system—not even an ecosystem, or a microclimate—these terms are accurate in one sense, but incomplete. The farm is seen as a true organism; this is not metaphoric. An organism has the ability to take elements into itself and eliminate them while maintaining its identity and integrity. If you look at a cell, for example, there is an inside and an outside, mediated by a semi-permeable membrane, and it is the same for our skin, the bark of a tree, and so on. A corpse on the other hand cannot maintain any difference between itself and the environment.
And, all living organisms have the ability to perform certain functions that together maintain life: something akin to respiration, nutrition, metabolization, elimination, reproduction, etc. The ideal Biodynamic farm too is self-supporting in a “closed loop.”
Conventional science tells us that it can take centuries to build topsoil. The BD preps build humus quickly.
Soil itself can be enlivened to its greatest capacity, or it can be dead. If you treat it as if it is dead, merely a constituent of different inert chemicals (NPK) that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Living soils and plants are continually inhaling forces and elements from the cosmos to the earth and then exhaling them back out to the cosmos.
What distinguishes Biodynamics from Regenerative or Organic is mainly the higher degree of life Biodynamic yields compared to the others. Biodynamic soil most closely resembles true virgin soil.
Regenerative Organic also lacks spiritual content. It has more to it than plain organics—it addresses the ecological, humane, and just economics side; the two are compatible. It is an ally. RO has grown bigger than Biodynamics. RO says essentially to put more in the soil than you take out.”
HISTORY
Following Rudolf Steiner’s agricultural lectures of 1924, Biodynamic farming took hold in Europe.
In the 1940’s, English Baron Lord Northbourne, agricultural professor at Oxford and Biodynamic farmer at his family’s estate in Kent, coined the term “organic” from Steiner’s view of “the farm as organism.” In the 1950’s, influenced by the rise of Biodynamic farming in Europe, the American J.I Rodale popularized the term organic in his publication “Organic Gardening.”Because of their allied history, both methods shared a focus on soil health, condemned the use of synthetic chemicals, and encouraged the use of compost, cover crops, and holistic pest and weed management.
CERTIFICATION SYSTEM VERSUS REGULATORY PROGRAM
Demeter was formed in Europe soon after Steiner’s lectures to promote Biodynamic agriculture in Europe through education and certification. In the US Demeter was founded in 1985 as a nonprofit, and obtained the certification mark “Biodynamic®” soon after. In order for a farm or agriculturally based product to refer to itself as “Biodynamic” it must have obtained certification through Demeter. This certification system has maintained, as its underlying philosophy, Steiner’s view of the farm as a living organism.
In 2002, with the growth of organic labeling in products across the country, the USDA ruled that a base market definition was needed, and launched the National Organic Program (NOP) to define organic standards and enforce them through federal law. There are national organic regulatory programs in Europe, Japan, Canada and other countries around the world.
KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOP ORGANIC AND DEMETER BIODYNAMIC® CERTIFICATION
History
NOP established in US in 2002
Demeter established in Europe in 1928, and in the US in 1985
Use of imported materials
NOP permits imported organic fertilizers and pesticides
Biodynamic® reduces imported materials by addressing its needs from within the farming system
Fertility is delivered via a nutrient rich soil component, called humus, created by the:
Integration of livestock
Intensive use of green manure (cover crops grown to add nutrients to soil) and legumes
Rotation of crops
Application of field/compost sprays
Pest and Disease Control:
Creation of biologically diverse habitat encourages balanced predator prey relationships
Humus development contributes to insect and disease resistance
Water:
Increased humus levels result in soil’s ability to store water
Preservation of riparian areas emphasized
Livestock feed source
NOP allows for organic feed imported to the farm from anywhere in the world
Biodynamic® requires 50% of livestock feed be grown on farm.
Biodiversity requirements
No specific NOP requirement
Biodynamic® requires a biodiversity set aside of ten percent of the total farm acreage
Farm certification
NOP is crop focused and allows for a designated parcel to be certified
Biodynamic® is farm focused and requires that the whole farm be certified
Product certification
NOP processing standard is applied across product types and focuses primarily on ingredients used
Biodynamic® processing standards, developed for specific product types, require minimal manipulation so that the agricultural ingredients used define the product.