International Conference on Biodynamic Research: Growing beyond Resilience
The 2nd International Conference on Biodynamic Research will take place at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester (United Kingdom), 30^th August to 2^nd September 2021.

The theme for the upcoming conference is “Growing beyond Resilience”. Academic and farmer-practitioner research into biodynamic and organic agriculture and food systems offers new ways to understand how we can create a transformative culture that works to address pressing challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, soil infertility and human ill-health.

Taking an inter- and trans-disciplinary approach, we aim to bring together academic, participatory and practitioner’s research to explore and discuss resilience in biodynamic food and farming systems and how we can grow beyond this concept. As such, we invite you to take a critical look at the concept of resilience – does it help or hinder? What is its power to actively shape the transformative culture needed on farms and in society?

We invite contributions on the following topics:

1. Beyond resilience: what more for our food and farming systems?
2. The farm or garden as a organism and the evolution of its individuality with the farm - dimensions of nature, knowing, knowledge and the farmer
3. The Geography, landscape and terroir, and biodiversity research of food systems
4. Approaches that support a living soil, soil life, and soil fertility and biodiversity
5. Working with the biodynamic preparations, and cycles of life (e.g. including carbon, lunar and solar cycles)
6. Advances in crop and plant science
7. Comparative and interactive studies with agroforestry, permaculture, agroecology, and gardening
8. Researching formative, subtle and etheric forces, including food quality, nutritional value and vitality
9. Animal husbandry and welfare
10. Certification and the socio-economics of farming systems
11. Talking with nature: collaboration with the other-than-human and public engagement in healthy food systems
12. New and adapted scientific methods in academic and on-farm research
13. Others - freestyle

Three main formats will be accepted for the call: oral presentations, poster presentations and workshop contributions.

Scientific contributions should follow common rules for the description of survey methods and data assessment, structure in terms of the background, aims and objectives, description of methods, analysis, discussion and conclusions. Contributions may also be observation papers (e.g. farmer/growers observations without statistical data evaluation) or review papers.

Please send us your abstract (max 2500 characters) using this application form by the deadline of 28^th February 2021. All abstracts must be in the English language. If you are selected and want to present in a language other than English, a translator may be possible.

Abstracts will be subject to a review process. Personal and Institutional details of the applicants will be anonymised before the review process. Based on reviewers’ comments, the Programme Committee will make the final decision about the acceptance or rejection of proposals by the end of May 2021. The final decision on the presentation form will also be taken by the reviewers and the Programme Committee.

After the review process, full papers may be submitted.

We encourage contributions from international researchers, students, farmers, processors and others engaged in food systems’ research. Support for travel and accommodation costs for participants from a lower-income country can be granted on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us for further information.

More information at: www.sektion-landwirtschaft.org

Conference Committee:

Lin Bautze (Section for Agriculture, Switzerland), Dr. Christopher Brock (Forschungsring, Germany), Jonathan Code (Crossfields Institute International, United Kingdom), Dr. Regina Sharmila Dass (Pondicherry University, India), Dr. Petra Derkzen (Biodynamic Federation Demeter International, Netherlands), Dr. Saskia von Diest (Stellenbosch University, South Africa), Jean-Michel Florin (Section for Agriculture, Switzerland), Dr. Jürgen Fritz (University of Kassel, Germany), André Hach (Section for Agriculture, Switzerland), Dr. Jasmin Peschke (Section for Agriculture, Switzerland), Prof. Dr. Neil Ravenscroft (Royal Agriculture University, United Kingdom), Dr. Laurence Smith (Royal Agriculture University, United Kingdom), Dr. Anet Spengler (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland), Richard Swann (Biodynamic Association, United Kingdom), Verena Wahl (Section for Agriculture, Switzerland), Sarah Weber (Biodynamic Association, USA), Dr. Johannes Wirz (Natural Science Section, Switzerland), Dr. Julia Wright (Coventry University and Biodynamic Association, United Kingdom)

Your contact:
Lin Bautze
Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum
+41 61 706 41 44
biodynamic.research@goetheanum.ch