Dottenfelder Hof - Biodynamic Agricultural School

"We do not want to condition someone’s thinking nor accumulate knowledge, but help to develop the excitement of all human powers, so they can recognize their own imprinted biases, acquire knowledge about the world to grow personally, and to let them develop their individual strength and personalities" (my translation of a quote by by Alexander von Humboldt, German Naturalist, 1769-1859).

This quote is the introduction to the year-long training in biodynamic agriculture at the Landbauschule Dottenfelder Hof. I visited this school to see how a biodynamic education compares to a more standard eco-ag program and I wanted to learn specifically how they organize the one-year course and various one-month modules.

The school is in Bad Vilbel, just north of Frankfurt. It is on a working farm with 350 acres of land on which pasture, fodder crops, grains, vegetables, and pulse crops (legumes) are grown. 80 dairy cows, breeding and meat hogs, and chicken are also core part of the farm. The farm has first been officially documented over 1000 years ago. It used to be owned by a monastery and later became property of the state. In 1950 a group of 5 farm families leased the farm and started a communally owned business. Since then a bakery, a dairy, a café and a health food store were added to the farm. The direct marketing of high value farm products is key to the economic well being of the farm and school.

In 1968 the agricultural school was founded and 12 years later they bought the farm building and some land around it (while the fields are still leased from the state of Hessen). The school offers courses in biodynamic farming since 1974. Today there one-month long winter courses and a one-year course. The January course gives students a broad introduction to biodynamic farming and includes (besides the technical information of farming) also exercises in anthropsophical art, observation (phenomenology), and eurythmy. There are no prerequisites to participate in this course. The February course is an advanced course for students who want to deepen their understanding of biodynamic farming. It builds on the January course and focuses either on plant production (course I) or animal production (course II). The February course is for those who are seriously considering becoming biodynamic farmers. It is highly recommended that participants have worked in a green job for at least two years. Rudolf Steiner’s texts related to agriculture are also covered during the February courses. The February course gives participants a good opportunity to see how the year long course works. The 4 week-long winter courses cost € 800, which includes meals and accommodation.

The year long course is the core educational event at the agricultural school. Twelve to 15 students live on the farm and are immersed in biodynamic farming lectures, seminars, projects, field experiments and daily farm chores. Most students are from Germany but there were also a number of international students (this year from Oregon, Italy, Romania and Japan.) All instructions are in German and a solid foundation in this language is essential to get the full benefit of the education. It is possible to live at the farm a few months before the course starts and go to language school. Students are instructed by managers, researchers, artist and others who work permanently on the farm as well as staff from other farms, research institutes, universities and schools. As in the Advanced February course it is highly recommend that students have at least a 2 year education in agriculture or related field before they start the one-year course. The cost of the course is € 8400 (€ 700 per month) which includes meals and accommodation (small dorm rooms).

In addition to the courses taught by the school, the farm also offers various internship and apprenticeship opportunities during which biodynamic farming is taught. Apprentices are either part of the regular 3-year government licensed general agriculture apprenticeship program (which is what I participated in before my academic studies) or they participate in a 4-year biodynamic apprenticeship. They may also be interns (of variable length of time) or conducting an ecological service year (instead of the mandatory army or civil service).

The diversity of learners and enterprises at the Dottenfelderhof makes farm and school management a real challenging task but it seem to be a real plus for the education. While apprentices and students usually focus on a particular aspect of farming (e.g. dairy management, vegetable crop production, etc.) there are chances to switch and look into other areas of farm production. Some of the students feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the tasks and opportunities. I talked to some who mentioned that not even the year-long course is sufficient time to get a good handle on biodynamic farm management. That in part is due to the fact that a portion of the time is spent on non-technical issues (e.g. art, astrology, philosophy, human health and nutrition, etc.). After visiting Emerson College and this farm school I am starting to believe that offering a little less technical information but including more opportunities to gain awareness of your social and physical environment as well as to learn about yourself might be a good trade-off in the education of the future producers of our food.