An alliance that gives results and respects the environment” was published in the Corriere della Sera on May 19, 2024. In fact, it was an interview with Carlo Triarico, President of the Italian Association for Biodynamic Agriculture. Just to be clear, it happens that Triarico is President of that agriculture based on the never-before-tried fantasies of Rudolf Steiner, a bizarre Austrian thinker and esotericist who died exactly a century ago. His teachings derived from what Steiner saw being done in Austrian farms at the beginning of the 20th century, with the addition of a host of bizarre things relating to homeopathy, astrology and never better specified cosmic forces to be captured and then channeled into crops through animal skulls and horns filled with gold or manure.
Three pseudosciences in one
In essence, a pseudo-science that is based on two other pseudo-sciences, all made more intriguing thanks to esotericism of various kinds. In fact, it is a form of organic farming in which, however, some specific preparations, precisely biodynamic, must be used. Otherwise, no Demeter certification, the multinational based in Switzerland that manages the entire certification business. There is also a specific production specification in which the permitted, non-permitted and derogable practices are indicated. For example , GMOs are prohibited , but all those varieties of cereals obtained in the distant past through mutagenesis are permitted. Those that from 2018 should also be considered GMOs based on the judgment of the European Court of Justice . Furthermore, for the production of feed and food, cereal hybrids are not permitted, with the exception of corn. So, a biodynamic farmer cannot sow a barley hybrid Hivido from Syngenta, just to name one, but he can sow a corn hybrid sold by the same Swiss multinational. Mysteries of faith in Steiner. Furthermore, to eliminate the parasites that afflict crops, pyrethrum, azadirachtin and even spinosad can be used. Three pesticides of natural origin, but not for this reason detached from their own toxicological and environmental pro le.
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Against pathogens, copper, sulfur and calcium polysulfide can be used, which are far from harmless, while for ectoparasites of farmed animals, such as ticks, flies and scabies mites, synthetic pyrethroids can be used, but only after the appropriate exemption granted on the basis of the veterinarian's prescription. The same approach is used for antibiotics and anthelmintics such as ivermectin and doramectin, which are effective against intestinal worms. All these remedies would be prohibited in theory, but they can still be administered when needed, by way of exemption, if the veterinarian deems it necessary. Nothing different, in other words, from what happens in a modern intensive farm, where it is always the veterinarian who tells the breeder what to apply and when. Therefore, the stated renunciation of the use of chemical products, reported in the interview summary, is in fact a mere marketing narrative, a field in which Carlo Triarico is definitely a master. A good thing, at least in theory, is the large spaces that must be reserved for animals raised according to the biodynamic method. For a bovine, for example, at least five thousand square meters are needed left at its disposal. In practice, two bovines per hectare. Operating in this way, a company with 300 dairy cows would have to count on 150 hectares just to let its cattle graze in the open air.
Agricultural production plummets
If every intensive farm were to adopt the spaces provided by Demeter, there would be little choice between the option of decimating the animals raised or that of leaving large slices of the agricultural surfaces currently used for the production of all other foods for pasture. After all, as mentioned, biodynamic agriculture harks back to the farms of a century ago, when 38 million people lived in Italy, almost all of them farmers, and had double the current UAA at their disposal. Today there are 59 million people and each of them has only a third of the UAA per capita compared to the early 1900s. This demonstrates that times change, but pseudosciences remain. At least, in the Corriere della Sera Carlo Triarico said something right, namely that animals are allies of those who cultivate. Very true. Without animals, no modern farmer could return to the soil the organic substance necessary for preserving soil fertility, its structural health and its microbiological biodiversity. So, if you look closely, even intensive breeders and farmers could be seen as biodynamic in this sense. But without their knowledge.
