Georg Meissner is special in the world of viticulture. Not only is steeped in the BioDynamic method, he sits on the research team that compares organic/conventional/BioDynamic in a multi year trial at Geisenheim University in Germany and in addition to that he makes wine from his own vineyard in the Roussillon. He is presenting the 3 day course referred to above. For full details you need to click here Meissner wine growing workshop June 2018
Alternatively click here to email Beatrix who is organising the event.
There are many reasons to consider the BioDynamic method. First and foremost true BioDynamic wines withstand the forces of oxidation (death) for weeks. I recently drank some of Nicolas Joly’s wines that had been open for 4 weeks as per the photo above and they were glorious. No conventionally produced or even organic wine can lay claim to that. The latter wines will go off within days of being opened, tasted and recorked.
Nicolas Joly has written some great articles here on a few subjects, one being the use of sulphur.
Another great writer on the subject in Monty Waldin. Here is an excellent reasoning why this method should be supported.
A massive thanks to Yolande, in the middle in the photo below, and her husband Francois for enabling this. It feels like we are growing up. All you need to do is click on SHOP NOW and follow the instructions.
To celebrate we have released our salami sticks. As with all our butchery products we don’t cancer inducing nitrates and nitrites. Currently the only butchery in the land not adding these chemicals.
Ruvarashe and Phello are showing off our salami sticks which come in packs of 150 grams. The packets are filled with Nitrogen gas which keeps the product room temperature stable for 3 months. We use our pigs to make the salami as well as our organic Shiraz wine from the farm. Our beef and chicken products are also available online as well my Ezibusisweni Straw Wine.
The salt in all our products is from Khoisan and we also use it for our animals in their free choice mineral licks.
The ubiquity of this poison is an example of epistemicide. I elaborate on epistemicide at the bottom of this blog.
The chemical that is added to keep Glyphosate in suspension in the herbicide is what lab people give lab rats to create tumours.
I wrote this article on Glyphosate (the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup and its generics) in November 2015. I wanted to make a few comments on the comments about this article that have been made since writing.
First, a note on scientific peer reviewed studies. Science lost it’s credibility a long time ago. Science lost it’s objectivity long ago. The vast majority of scientists will find what their paymasters want them to find. The bigger the industry the more hysterical the so called scientists clamour to defend it, see tobacco, cell phones, pharmaceuticals and of course agricultural chemicals.
To critically evaluate scientists we need to ask the following questions.
Who paid for the research?
Who did the research?
Where did the researcher work before?
Where does the researcher aim to work in the future?
Has the researcher ever served on the boards or worked for the companies in the industry that is being researched?
Has the researcher ever worked for any government agency that regulates the industry being researched?
Have you examined the whole content of the research in the light of common sense?
Many times the summary statement or conclusions do not match the actual data or results.
Second, not everything that exists is measurable. One of the favourite daggers hurled at me when I discuss one element of BioDynamics, namely the energetic part of life, is that for scientists or real farmers to take any of this seriously it needs to be measured. Love is not measurable, not even in grams or millimetres. Hence the scientist has never loved.
Third, Glyphosate is merely the tool through which the agricultural chemical and seed companies are trying to establish their monopoly. It is a very powerful and clever way to achieve what every business wants. The side effects, like those of pharmaceuticals, are beside the point to these corporates who only care about their stock price. In my Goldman Sachs days I completely understood the quarterly driven mania for good results. What Glyphosate is doing is taking agriculture out of the farmers hands and into the corporates. Farmers care about their grandchildren whereas the nature of corporates is to care about the next quarter. These are incompatible values.
Fourth, the best video on Glyphosate is the one below. By retired geneticist Thierry Vrain. Once you have watched this you will understand this poison and it’s ubiquity. It’s chelating, desiccating, antibiotic and herbicide effect.
Fifth, the ubiquity of Glyphosate in our food. There are many butchers in the country who now claim to be supplying their clients with grass fed beef. This is very easy to validate. Earlier this year I tested the meat from many of the butcheries around the country to see if there was any Glyphosate in the meat. If there is Glyphosate then the animals has been fed grain as all grains in this country are grown or killed with Glyphosate. There are a very small handful of grain growers who do not use Glyphosate. I tested lamb and beef and as you can see below there were 8 samples that tested positive. See the photo below.
Finally, Epistemicide, a term coined by Jonathan Code, author of the book Muck and Mind, refers to the cide (the Latin word for killing or death) of epistemology. In other words, the killing of a way of knowing.
What we are never taught, but need to be aware of at all times, is that there is never only one way of knowing. There might appear to be only one but there was never one at the beginning and killing a way of knowing does not make it any less valid. Furthermore all ideas stem from an individual and we all know that no human has access to absolute truth, if such an idea exists.
Very few people are taught to question what is behind the way of knowing. Is the way you were taught mathematics the only way? The same applies to science. Who questions the unquestioned beliefs in society? Unquestioned beliefs only exist because of epistemicide.
The dominant paradigm in the world today is one of reductionism. Where everything is isolated, reduced, quantified and objectified. All of these principles are in violation of life which is not only the opposite of the abovementioned but also contextual. How can anyone claim confusion as to the parlous state of the world when the system is in violation of nature and life? This proves how powerful epistemicide is.
In the world of agriculture and gardening the use of Glyphosate is total. Only the certified BioDynamic and Organic farms do not use Glyphosate. This is an example of the epistemicide of farming and gardening without the use of herbicides.
I grew up on a cattle ranch in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Studied Management Accounting at Stellenbosch University before stockbroking for Goldman Sachs in London for just over four years. Declined the offer of promotion, left my job and moved to South Africa. Built a clay home with inspiration from various people on the way leading to me become a biodynamic student, grass farmer and carbon sequestrator.
