Muck and Mind

A healthy culture implies a healthy agriculture.

Beyond the technology and use of machines, today rapidly developing technology (i.e., “genetic engineering”) extends into the realm of life, which we can, and therefore do, manipulate for the ostensibly noble purpose of feeding the people of the world.

Life, however, is not mechanical. To begin to comprehend life, something is desperately needed―a fundamental shift in our approach, one that seeks to comprehend the qualities of the living organism as a whole, and in relation to its whole environment, which extends, ultimately, to the outer limits of the cosmos.

This fundamental shift in approach is at the heart of biodynamic agriculture, the qualitative opposite of the genetically manipulative approach to agriculture, or “factory farming.” However, whereas the practical differences between these two approaches are profound, the real issue is not the details of methods, but the modes of consciousness behind those methods.

This book arose from the author’s engagement with core aspects of the biodynamic approach to land stewardship and from a deepened understanding for how working with the land, plants, and animals may become a catalyst not only for the transformation of compost and soil, but also for a transformation of consciousness.

A healthy agriculture feeds a healthy culture.

Jonathan Michael Code is the Senior Education and Research Coordinator for the Hiram Education and Research Department of Crossfields Institute in Gloucestershire, UK. He has a deep interest in consciousness studies, Western esotericism, the natural sciences, and education. These interests informed both his Bachelor's degree (undertaken through the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco) and his MA (completed at Rudolf Steiner University College, Oslo). Jonathan has taught practical chemistry, phenomenology, and nature study to students of all ages for many years and continues to teach at Ruskin Mill Trust Colleges (Gloucestershire) in biodynamic apprentice seminars and in other adult education settings, both in the UK and internationally.