Organic

Organic agriculture looks at the whole agricultural ecosystem and favours the natural properties and fertility of the soil without the use of synthetic or genetically modified products.

The major difference from so-called conventional agriculture is that organic excludes the use of any “unnatural” products and preserves the organic substances in the soil.

This is important for two reasons: Whoever produces organically does so not only to avoid the use of chemical means that one tries to reduce to a minimum any action which could be harmful not only to the vines, but to the entire ecosystem.

In agronomic practice organic uses organic fertilizers and cultural rotation which protects the structure of the soil. The fight against the plants’ “enemies”, is only with oranic products and with natural techniques, such as sexual confusion or the use of anti-parassites selected from the insects themselves.From the legal aspect, organic agriculture was “born” with the E.U. regulation no. 2092/91 relative to organic production of agricultural products, and the indication of this method on agricultural methods and their food by-products.

In June 2007 a new regulation for organic agriculture was brought into force (EU) Reg. n° 834/2007, which abrogates previous laws and is relative to organic agriculture and the labelling of organic products-both animal and vegetable (including water cultivation).

Biodynamic agriculture was born in 1924 following a meeting organized by German farmers, who invited Rudolf Steiner, philosopher, researcher and founder of Anthroposophy, to share the first experiments in response to emerging problems with chemical agriculture incipient at that time.

New points of view regarding the observation of natural phenomena emerged, and in particular, to those relative to the activity of human production. The limitations and partiality of an agrarian technology founded merely on the application of norms of a physical/chemical nature came out strongly amongst the agriculturalists present. Nothing should be left to itself, but everything connected in a complex relationship which goes beyond purely causal aspects. In biodynamic cultivation, one therefore talks of organic agriculture-meaning paying attention to all those systems composed of living relationships, and not only material.

Fundamental to the concept is that plants must be fed naturally, in other words in soil with increased organic activity, determined by the level of humus and the granular and root structure.This means that the plants are fed by the ecosystem of the soil and not primarily by the soluble salts in the water present in the soil.

Plants grown in this way take in nutrients under the direct influence of the sun, its heat and light, so they may selectively absorb the nutritional elements they need for appropriate growth.

The agriculturalist prepares them on the farm and decides their use, making use of specific laws which govern the Natural Kingdom, extended and developed by the anthroposophical scientific research of Rudolf Steiner, foundation of Biodynamic agriculture. In agricultural practice, specific agronomic studies are taken into consideration- the astronomical/mathematical sector of the Goetheanum Dornach-CH. These indicate the best times (according to cosmic rhythms) for different phases of the working of the soil, for sowing and harvesting, for the care of animals and the beehive.