My second visit in England was to Emerson College in Forest Row, about an hour south of London. Emerson College is a school that is based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy. The Waldorf Schools and Biodynamic Farming follow this philosophy. It was a beautiful, mild (and dry !!!!) November day when I visited the campus. Unfortunately, Emerson College is not the lively center of anthropological teaching with 200 students from around the world that it used to be. The college got into financial trouble last year and had to close its door to the regular day-to-day operations and its future is not entirely clear. Only a few full-time and some part time programs now use the facilities and operate independently. Much to the organic/biodynamic agriculture community’s delight, the agricultural training program is one of those programs.
The Biodynamic Agricultural College (BDA college) has its own teaching facility, the Rachel Carson Center. Currently 32 domestic and international students are in either the agriculture or horticulture program. The training is 1.5 years. It starts in September and goes through March in the first year. Then students are placed on a farm (most biodynamic, some organic) for 5 months and then return in September of year 2 for another 23 week college training period until March after which the training is completed. The tuition for this training ($4500-7500 per year) is a little higher than the programs I visited in the United States but also offers different training subjects .
BDA college students mostly live in dorms on campus and are in involved in food preparation and custodial work. There training at the college occurs in six areas of work and study: agriculture, science, arts, economics, skills, and philosophy. They receive a foundation in soils science, plant and animal biology and regular agricultural practices mostly through courses that are taught in partnership with Plumton College/Brighton University. During their biodynamic training, they learn to experience the living formative forces in the agricultural system. They also receive specific training in homeopathy in animals. In addition, students receive training in the arts, movement (eurythmy), and observation of the natural world (plant and animal phenomenology). Students create a portfolio of evidence as a record of progress.
The training is supported by a 5 acre vegetable crop production garden, a flower garden and 2 farms (450 ac and 200 ac) on which meat animals (pigs, sheep, broilers, cattle), dairy cows, grain and pasture are raised. Farms are separate/independent businesses from the college and owned by a community of 550 members. The farm provides the lab/work area for the students. Each afternoon from 2 to 4 students are in the gardens or on the farms to gain practical skills. The village of Forest Row appears very supportive of the organic/biodynamic college. The farms run farm stores where meat, dairy, produce and flowers are sold.
It is unfortunate that Emerson College is not operating for now. That takes away some of the support, appeal and the energy of the program. Another downside in my opinion is the fact that students are not in the college training program for the entire growing season (April-September). It seems students could benefit from some structured time during the summer. Also, while it was good that the farms were independent from the college when Emerson got into financial trouble, I feel that a true BDA College farm would allow students to learn much more about farm management, crop planning and marketing.
A great feature of biodynamic farming is the integration of soils, crops, animals and humans in a whole farm system. While other organic or ecological farming training programs try hard to include some of this integration, it is obvious that it comes much more natural in a specifically biodynamic training. To me it is also wonderful to see the integration of philosophy, arts, movement and crafts (e.g. greenwood craft) into an agricultural training.
During my visit I gave a 2 hour lecture on LBCC’s effort in sustainability and my impressions of the US training programs I visited so far. The students appeared to enjoy the presentation and the discussion. They also gave me some good ideas on how to design a sustainable food systems program at LBCC. I am grateful to
Arjen Huesse, Juergen Schuhmacher, Nir Halfon, and Deborah Watts for setting up my visit and meeting with me.
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