Biodynamic Pseudo-science
Oh, please!
As Steiner himself put it, “Spiritual scientific truths are true in and of themselves and do not need to be confirmed by experiments.”
Find me a vomit bin where I can expell the pseudo-scientific quackery that was regurgitated in this article. A great article, by the way, but the subject was rather disturbing to my skeptical and scientific sensibilities. (WARNING: It does contain severed cow heads and astrology masquerading as astronomy!)
“We do astronomy,” says Philippe Armenier, a French-born Biodynamic consultant now living in Santa Rosa. “It is quite complicated. We work with the planets and constellations. Astronomy is for plants. Astrology is for human beings.”
And my favorite quote:
“If you seed three days before a full moon, it’ll germinate faster and stronger and your plants will be more fruitful,” says Sue Porter of Porter-Bass Vineyards. “In the olden days, people used to shut down barber shops before the full moon. No one in his right mind would get a haircut; it’d grow back so fast. People used to know a little bit more.”
All I can say, is don’t buy the biodynamic BS. It will be a waste of your money.
(Thanks for sending me the link, Maura!)
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Whoa. Hey there, Kirsten. Stop beating around the bush – say what’s on your mind!
Biodynamic is agriculture’s creationism. Astrology, earth magic, homeopathy (yes it includes diluting things to zero), almost anything under the sun that is pseudoscientific. What disturbs me is how many educated people literally ‘buy’ into it. This article is a treasure trove of the dirt on biodynamic. Good find.
If only people knew and could accept the limitations of the word “science” and its derivatives, they might stop trying to clothe themselves in the word and fixate on some other word.
The problem is that science works, its made up of things that can logically be derived and constructed.
What they have only operates by stretching the imagination.
As any mechanic can tell you, no about of imagination will change a 3/4″ wrench into a 1/2″ wrench.
Likewise no amount of prayer will save your butt from a falling bomb if you’re within the blast radius.
I wonder if these vintners use biodynamic water to quench their grapes. It is collected from rain storms that occur during a full moon. Only then could their wine be truly distinctive.
I wonder where I could find a good wine sporting a “NOT grown with witchcraft” label.
Hey Kirsten,
Biodynamics sounds a lot like a cross between Vodoo and farming.
Oh and Charles the easiest way for a mechanic to change a 1/2 wrench into a 3/4 wrench is to use a Cresent Wrench. We have the technology.
Also if a bomb is falling on top of your head prayer is a good idea. As it turns out there are no athiests in fox holes. Garenteed if you don’t pray for the first one you will pray for the second one!
KK
I was particularly interested in the part of the article where the biodynamic enthusiasts were claiming to change the weather – particularly in the case of hurricanes in the Gulf. I say we run with it, and pass a law giving them harsh penalties if they make a mistake and allow another Cat 5 hurricane to make landfall. 🙂
While I agree that the theoretical basis of biodynamic agriculture is complete tosh, in practice there is I believe something in the method that works. I remember watching interviews some years back with winemakers in Burgundy , which where this first became fashionable. The best Burgundy is arguably the finest red wine in the world, and certainly among of the most expensive, and the grape from which it is made, the Pinot Noir is also notoriously tricky to cultivate. Although I presume the initial idea to try this must have come from one, the winemakers interviewed were not hippy mystics, but very skilled practical men, rather cynical in that that dismissive French way, who admitted they had no idea why it worked, but were nonetheless convinced that it was producing better wine.
Rudolph Steiner was a fruitcake of the first order, nonetheless there are still many thriving schools run on his educational ideas all over the world, and though I am glad my education was conventional, they cannot be completely worthless. Just because he was barking mad does not mean that he had no valid insights. Maybe it’s just the infinite chimpanzees with infinite typewriters principal, or perhaps something else, but perhaps scientists might do better trying to devise some effective rigorous investigation into this, rather than simply dismissing it, because among the mad candyfloss nonsense, there may well be some nuggets of truth.
The proof of the pudding is always in the eating- and that biodynamic produce tastes mighty fine!
Many wines taste mighty fine. And many biodynamic wines are terrible.