It is difficult to believe that I have already been in Iceland for two and a half weeks. Time passes strangely here, moving both fast and slow. Already, our little group has had so many amazing experiences. The one that stands out most clearly in my mind is the trip we took to Skaftholt Farm, a biodynamic farm, earlier this week.
I grew up in an agricultural region of Vermont. Down the road from my house was a sheep farm that gave tours in the spring. Farmer’s markets and farm stands were abundant and many of my classmates milked cows before coming to school. My grandfather even had his own small farm. Despite all of this exposure to different methods of farming, I had never experienced a farm like the one we visited.
The biggest difference between Skaftholt Farm and the organic farms I have visited is the spiritual component of the farm. Planting and harvesting times move in rhythm with the astrological calendar and special preparations are made to help promote the health of the soil and the compost. There are several different preparations. One involves filling a cow horn with manure and burying in the ground in autumn and leaving it to over winter. The idea behind this and the other preparations is to fertilize the soil and mediate the forces at work without the use of harmful, synthetic fertilizers.
I found myself struggling a bit with the concept of planting by the astrological calendar and preparing the land with herbs and animal organs. However, besides these two differences, Skaftholt Farm resembled some of the smaller organic farms where I am from. They did not have a large number of animals, but they were clearly well-cared for. The land was beautiful, looking out over picturesque snow covered mountains.
The purpose of the biodynamic farming method is to try and preserve the health of the soil, the plants, and the animals. Even though some of the practices were strange to me, I do not think it matters if the intention is to help the land. Poorly executed agriculture can gravely damage the soil and the land, decreasing the nutritional value of food and affecting animal and human health. Even if I do not necessarily believe in all of the practices of a biodynamic farm, I would rather see agriculture too much on the side of preserving land and health than too much on the side of profits at any cost.
Although I cannot see myself as a biodynamic farmer, I did like their concept of the farm as an ecological system. If more farmers and business men looked at farms this way, instead of just assembly lines of soil and edible products, maybe we could reduce the occurrence of desertification and improve the quality of our food. One idea that was voiced was using biodynamic farming as a way to heal land that has been abused by industrial agriculture. I think that this could work quite well, given enough time, and would be interested in seeing it happen in the future.