Beyond organic: Harnessing nature’s wisdom
Posted by Webmaster | Filed under Features, Spotlight—Food in focus
Ian & David Keen, Manna Farms
WORDS Linda Moon
For the past twenty years, Hamish Mackay has been working towards his vision – that by 2024 Australian agriculture will be largely biodynamic, organic or holistic.’ The year 2024 is exactly a hundred years after Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), founder of biodynamic agriculture, gave his lectures addressing problems farmers were experiencing due to chemical fertilisers. These went on to form the foundations for what early adapters dubbed the ‘Bio-Dynamic Method’. Hamish’s fervour is characteristic of those working in the biodynamic industry, an approach to farming that’s aligned with a lot of big picture issues. Chief of these are claims it offers a framework for sustainable farming, curing the land and improving human health. Food produced this way is tastier and more mineral dense, Mackay adds, forecasting: ‘good food wisely used will be the medicine of the future. There is a shift happening in awareness around food.’
As a concept, organics is much better understood by the general public. Both methods avoid chemical pesticides, fertilisers and Genetically modified organisms. How do they differ? John Hodgkinson, editor of News Leaf, a publication of Biodynamic Agriculture Australia (BAA), explains: ‘[Biodynamics] is an advance on organics; a further step along the path to naturalistic farming and gardening.” Biodynamic farmers use special preparations of manure, herbs and rock minerals buried in cow horns over winter. The resulting mixture is used to produce a colloidal spray that promotes soil health. ‘It’s a bit like alchemy,’ he says. ‘People continually say to us, is it science or faith?’ For on a deeper level biodynamics acknowledges the spiritual side of life, including the esoteric quality of plants.
Biodynamic farmers have a greater focus on the relationship between the farm and its ecosystem, taking into account the effects of animal and insect life, soil micro-organisms and worms, cosmic forces including the sun, lunar and astrological cycles, and other influences upon plant biology. ‘Our emphasis is on the soil,’ Hodgkinson says. ‘If your soils are pumping, your plants are pumping.’ He says biodynamic plants have extended shelf time, greater resilience to drought extremes and better moisture retention.
Biodynamic farmers can be found throughout Australia spanning diverse industries including viticulture, dairy, grains, and horticulture. ‘It works wherever there is soil development,’ Greenwood says. ‘Wine is popular as wine recognises those finer qualities that biodynamics develops.’
Greenwood, who runs 80-hectare Greenwood Orchards at Merrigum, Victoria, says there’s a lot more support for biodynamic farmers now than when his father Farry started converting the circa 1906 orchard to biodynamic methods in 1964 under the guidance of Alex Podolinsky (founder of the Biodynamic Agricultural Association of Australia, 1953).
These days, emerging biological systems for controlling pests—including predator wasps and mites—help make it easier, he says. ‘When we first started to remove the pesticides we lost our fruits to codling moth.’ Another year, the orchard (which produces apples, pears and juice) lost its fruit to fungus. However, over time biodiversity in the orchard developed. ‘There came a balance of nature,’ Greenwood recalls. ‘Predators built up because we weren’t spraying pesticides. The secret is to develop the biology of your soils so that the plants themselves will develop an entity that predators will not be attracted to. Survival of the fittest applies to plants as well. It takes a bit of courage when you’re growing commercially to approach it that way. You have to modify your expectations. It’s the most scientific method of understanding agriculture because it does take into account all influences on soil and biology.’
Fourth generation farmer, David Keen of Manna Farms in Nangiloc (near Mildura, Victoria), says his father Ian was inspired to convert to biodynamics in the late 1980s when he ran into problems with soil compaction and struggling to grow almond trees in red, sandy loam soils. ‘He was one of the first two people in our district—normally a citrus and vine-growing region—to plant almond trees,’ Keen recalls. ‘His sister, who was a bit more into the alternative lifestyles, directed him to look at biodynamics. Alex Podolinsky had a look at it and said the soil was dead and gave him a few things to try biodynamically. Once he adopted Alex’s practices he could see the soil starting to come alive with organisms and microbes and the trees starting to pick up.’
About 40,000 almond trees now flourish on the 1,300-acre farm, along with about 70,000 citrus plus avocado trees. The fruits are sold domestically, including through Woolworths’ Macro organic range, and exported to Singapore and Hong Kong.
Keen says it took his father twelve years of trial and error to work out a system he was happy with. ‘At that time no one was growing organic almonds or oranges. You’re flying blind yourself as to what’s the best way to go about it.’
Instead of drip irrigation, sprinklers water the whole orchard floor. Cover crops are grown and tend to promote soil health, structure and microbial organisms. ‘Whereas conventional farmers just look after and water exactly what the tree needs, we’re trying to give the soil what the soil needs. If we give the soil what the soil needs, the trees will look after themselves.’
‘It’s a sustainable form of agriculture. We have lush, green orchard floors. There’s birds and wildlife. It’s a very happy and healthy place to work. Knowing that what we put in our mouths is clean, green and very healthy for us is a great benefit.’
‘We try to show people we can grow chemical-free produce on a large commercial scale,’ he concludes. ‘It’s rewarding and would be good if more people could do it.’
Published at the beginning of each season, Sprout is a celebration of local food, producers and cuisine. It is about living sustainably through promoting fresh, seasonal produce from local farms and encouraging people to make a difference by growing their own food and making sustainable food choices.