At the upcoming anniversary conference, we intend to focus on the profound content and the conceptual images that we find in the Agriculture Course. Can the concepts we encounter there still be a source of inspiration today? How can the images be deepened and brought to life in such a way that they become accessible to the next generation - so that young people can use them in their practical work with the earth? Do current challenges in agriculture allow us to take a fresh look at the observations of Rudolf Steiner in the eight lectures of the Course?
You are warmly invited to submit a proposal for a contribution to the Agriculture Conference 2024 - be it a lecture, a three-day workshop, a three-day artistic course, or a poster. If you would like to propose a contribution that is not related to the conference theme, it can be submitted and considered as an Open Space. This format allows for a free choice of topic and structure, e.g. a discussion group, a reading circle, a guided tour, or another kind of contribution.
We look forward to receiving your proposal for a contribution by 31 August 2023.
100 Years of the Agriculture Course
In the coming year, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of biodynamic agriculture as Rudolf Steiner's Agri- culture Course took place in Koberwitz in June 1924. In these one hundred years, the biodynamic impulse has been brought from this place to the whole world, from the first group to hundreds of groups, from the Central European context to many cultural regions of the world.
In 1924, the methods of biodynamics developed out of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophical spiritual science. In the eight lectures of the Course, we encounter the deep conceptual images and principles that are the basis of biodynamics all over the world: The individuality in agriculture, the polarity between cosmos and earth, the give and take between animals and plants in nature's household, the preparations, or the soil as a breathing organ – those can be examples of such conceptual images.
At the upcoming anniversary conference, we intend to focus on these profound conceptual images in the Agriculture Course. Can the concepts we encounter there still be a source of inspiration today? How can the images be deepened and brought to life in such a way that they become accessible to the next generation - so that young people can use them in their practical work with the earth? Do current challenges in agricul- ture allow us to take a fresh look at the observations of Rudolf Steiner in the Course?
Tasks in the Present and Future
One hundred years after the Koberwitz lectures, we face critical questions concerning climate change, new genetic engineering, or the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and the loss of inner, social, and earthly soil that is associated with it. What solutions can the contents of the Course offer to the challenges we are currently facing? Will we find the strengths in the Course to courageously face the tasks that lay in front of the biodynamic movement?
A Personal Connection to the Course
When we study the contents of the Course, we experience the conceptual images through our own individ- uality - a personal connection can then develop. For some, this personal connection continues in their prac- tical work with the earth where it becomes manifest. Others discover biodynamics first through practical work with nature, and at a later stage through the study of the Course, they may gain a deeper, individual connection with its content.
At the upcoming Agriculture Conference, we intend to focus both on the present-day relevance of the Course and on the personal connection to the Course. The various conference contributions might serve as an invitation for participants to put the profound concepts into today's context and to connect with the con- tents as a whole person - in a willful-creative, sensing-feeling, and perceptive-contemplative way - and thereby let the images of the Course come alive.
Impulses for the Anniversary Year
The upcoming conference takes place at the beginning of several festive events throughout 2024 that are dedicated to the anniversary of biodynamics. Each conference contribution can therefore provide a specific impulse which may accompany participants throughout the entire anniversary year and, like a planted seed, may come to fruition over time.
If the anniversary theme resonates with you, you are warmly invited to submit a proposal for a contribution to the Agriculture Conference 2024 - be it a lecture, a three-day workshop, a three-day artistic course, or a poster.
If you would like to propose a contribution that is not related to the conference theme, it can be submit- ted and considered as an Open Space. This format allows for a free choice of topic and structure, e.g. a discussion group, a reading circle, a guided tour, or another kind of contribution.
You can submit a proposal for a contribution here: https://agriculture-conference.paperform.co The deadline for submissions is 31 August 2023.
Agriculture Conference: 7-10 February 2024 at the Goetheanum