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SPIRITUAL
FOOD FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
PARTICIPATING FARMER’S QUESTIONNAIRE
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Thank you for your interest in our program.
Our intent is to develop a market of consumers with higher
consciousness, who really appreciate and value the effort that goes into
growing life-giving, spiritual food. The agricultural method therefore plays an important role and
will be a determining factor in selecting the participants for this
program. The following
questionnaire will allow us to make that decision.
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The commitment of Spiritual Food for the New Millennium (SFNM)
to provide the best food is based on the belief that food grown with a
spiritual purpose in mind will stimulate the spiritual development of
those who partake of it.
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The Agriculture course offered by Dr. Rudolf Steiner in 1924
makes this ideal possible; that is why we have chosen this form of
agriculture as the basis for our food selection system.
We are open to other forms of spiritual farming as well, as you
will see from the categories established in our award (selection)
system.
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Spiritual development is the main concern of the School of
Life Educational Society that is the originator of SFNM.
Therefore the actions of SFNM are based on spiritual values, such
as trust, non-violence (no competition), thankfulness for the abundance
of God’s creation, truthfulness, purity, etc.
Our commitment also involves manifesting spiritual intent in the
way business is conducted and how this can affect the social structure.
Our principles are not based on professionalism but on ethics; our
motivation is not financial but humanitarian.
Our security is based on trust, love, compassion and courage.
We cordially invite those who share this view to join the
program.
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We would like to be very clear about one of our primary
objectives at this time which it to support and promote the survival and
multiplication of small farms, individually or communally owned/managed,
that will serve their immediate community.
(The CSA movement should be a strong component of this program).
The intent is to stimulate the use of locally grown food and
avoid excessive transportation and processing costs that unnecessarily
raise the price of food.
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Dealing with very large farms and mass production is beyond
the scope of the SFNM program. Instead,
we wish to offer fresh, vital food for the family, while favoring the
development of a new economic model, such as Rudolf Steiner’s
Threefold Economic Order.
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In order to select providers for the program we have
established a “Selection Committee” of experienced farmers who will
evaluate and place each farm in its respective category. The evaluation will be based on the questionnaire.
This questionnaire has been prepared and revised by a group of
farmers.
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The award system we are establishing will give consumers
the assurance not only of the excellence of the food but of the
spiritual nature of it. That
is why we will call the food offered “sattwic”, from the Sanskrit
word “sattwa”, which can be translated to mean pure and luminous.
“Sattwa”, along with “rajas” and “tamas” are the
three attributes of nature. Rajas
is usually interpreted as active and restless, and tamas as dark and
inert.
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As said before, the award system is not based on competition;
therefore there will not be a winner. Each farm participating in the program will receive the award
corresponding to the category it has been selected for.
Several farms may receive the same award and degree.
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There will be four categories with a varying number of
degrees, based on the point system established. These are:
(1)
Spiritual Farms: Guardians of Tradition
Farms following Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course
(2)
Innovator Farms: Fore-runners/Explorers
Farms following Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course, but that have
included
non-traditional modalities such as cosmic pipes, flow forms, clay horn,
etc.
(3)
Alternative Farms: Dharma-bans (meaning: siblings in
righteousness)
Farms that have moved away from conventional contemporary modalities
such as
organic, Perelandra, agnihotra, etc.
(4)
Novice Farms: Aspirants
Farms that are taking the necessary
steps to move away from conventional
contemporary practices and are converting the farm into any one of the
above
categories.
(5)
Organic
Farms certified organic according to the USDA guidelines for which we
have
no other information.
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The point system is based on the ideal farm, the qualitative
description of which was prepared by Jenni Muir, based on the
Agriculture course.
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A farmer must first be knowledgeable in being a
farmer, and adopt as many sustainable practices as he can:
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Creating
a self-sufficient farm organism
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Producing
all animal food on the farm
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Practicing
good pasture management/pasture rotation
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Utilizing
ground covers and leaving no bare soil
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Creating
a diverse habitat for beneficial insects
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Planting
green manure crops
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Planting
seeds, transplanting, saving seeds
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Companion
planting
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Rotating
crops
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In addition, the following is of utmost importance:
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Utilizing
Steiner’s preps, and field sprays & producing all or part on the
farm
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Preparing
manures, composts, and potting soils made with those preps
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Using
plant and manure teas
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Using
Steiner’s ashing techniques
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The quality of produce can be judged by their effect on human
life, being as beneficial and health giving as possible – promoting
human life. A farmer
engaged in only the materialistic side of farming may produce large and
colorful produce, however, without the spiritual forces present in the
food, it is but a mere filler to the body – to move though the body
and be discarded, without ever taking up the vitality of the forces in
the food in the right way. Likewise, the food will quickly rot, and attract insect pests
to itself quiet readily.
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The interaction of our soul and spirit with everything that
is around us, when we walk our land and become intimate with our soil
and plants, makes us ever more receptive to the mysteries at work.
In nature, everything is in mutual interaction with everything
else. We develop
sensitivities to the more intimate interactions and processes in nature;
we observe things in such a way that we see all living things in their
place, and each thing’s importance within the overall farm organism.
It is important to see these things on a spiritual basis.
It is impossible to assess the world of living things solely from
a materialistic view. We
need to look at the spirits activity in nature. We must gain this
insight into the way substances and forces work, and in the way the
spirit works. This is the way we acquire spiritual knowledge.
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There is a whole world beneath the surface at work.
There are various plants like legumes, busy inhaling oxygen and
nitrogen, so that they can give nitrogen to other plants who need
nitrogen. Lime drawing
everything into itself, silica being somewhat undemanding, and clay
mediating between lime and silica.
Steiner taught us these spiritual matters.
He also taught us how to cultivate sensitivity to the different
fragrances that come from plants growing on the ground, those that come
from orchards in bloom, and those that come from woodlands.
This way, we learn to tell whether the atmosphere around a plant
is poor or rich in astrality. For
the tree makes the spiritual atmosphere around itself richer in
astrality. A tree is
inwardly poorer in ether than plants, which in turn influences the trees
roots to become much more mineralized, and draw some of the ether from
the soil around them. This
makes the soil more dead around trees, than around plants.
And if there were no trees, then there would be no insects,
because trees make it possible for insects to exist.
We must strive to understand these inner workings of nature, and
the intimate relationship that exists between everything.
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We must consider the relationship of planetary and lunar
rhythms to the life span and decomposition of plants. We must gain this
knowledge of the effects of the stars in a spiritual way, and not just
by means of the physical senses. We
need to understand how water, or warmth can enhance, or restrain the
influence of the planets, and the role of silica and lime in mediating
the influence of the planets. Ashing
techniques for keeping harmful animals and insects at bay, in earlier
times were known as star knowledge.
The ashing techniques for unwanted plants were of a lunar
influence. We cannot
understand the plants and animals on earth in isolation; we must look to
the entire universe, for nature is a unity, with forces working in from
all sides.
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We must also look at nature in a broader sense, such as the
spiritual nature of the elements (protein, sulfur, carbon, oxygen,
nitrogen, and hydrogen), and their physical carriers.
Oxygen being the carrier of life; nitrogen, the carrier of
astrality, carbon being the carrier of all nature’s formative
processes, and sulfur being the carrier of the spirit.
Steiner employed us to get to know the elements in their deeper
nature. Steiner felt
materialists only see the physical carrier and forget about the spirit.
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We must enliven our soil directly by use of manure or compost
that can retain the proper amount of nitrogen and become vitalized; then
transmit this vitality to the soil.
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I believe it is necessary to study Steiner’s work,
beginning with the Agricultural course, in order to develop a deeper
understanding of these spiritual matters.
I also believe we should set aside quiet time each day for
meditating. We must come to
understand just how powerful our thoughts are, and learn to use them in
a spiritual way to develop and manage our farms.
There are other realms in nature we will come to discover and
interact with when we begin to practice spiritual farming.
We will find it is a continual learning environment, full of new
insights. We learn to see
with new eyes, and to listen with new ears, to what the plants and
animals need to grow healthy.
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The quantitative aspect of it is based on discussion with
experienced farmers, keeping in mind the parameters for a small farm
mentioned before.
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The ideal farm then, for our purposes, is composed of:
* A 200 share CSA
* No mechanical aids
* Ideal
fertility and weather
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Orchard ------------------------------
8 acres
Garden -------------------------------- 10 acres
Dairy (6cows) ----------------------- 15 acres
Forest, etc. --------------------------- 11 acres
Pasture -------------------------------- 12 acres
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60 acres
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This ideal farm is assuming perfect climatic conditions and
land fertility, and a minimum of four experienced farmers running the
operation with no aid of any mechanical or electronic equipment at all.
That means hand stirring and application of preparations, animal
power, etc.
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At this stage the questionnaire is focused on the first
category, Spiritual Farms.
It is considered a preliminary questionnaire subject to
revision after experimentation and discussion including a seminar where
all opinions can be voiced.
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A second questionnaire for organic farms has been prepared
which will also be subject to revision at a later date.
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The questionnaire, which you must fill out if you are joining
the program, is on a linked page. Please read the instructions
below before choosing what questionnaire form you want.
There
are two (2) Questionnaires posted on this site, both have the same
content but they have different formatting.
The
questionnaire for printing is a highly formatted document and should be
printed right from the web page (choose print from your browser). After printing it is to be
manually filled in and Mailed back to Spiritual Food. Spiritual
food will make copies and mail the form to the other members.
The
questionnaire for merging is a plain text document. Highlight the
text and COPY it to a word processing program such as MSWORD. You
can even copy it to NOTEPAD. Set font to COURIER NEW Size 10 and
everything should line up. Fill in the document and attach it to
an e-Mail to send it back to us. We would also like you to copy it
to other members as listed on the bottom of the form.
There
are some questions that require more detailed space than is
provided. If using the printed copy, just add additional pages.
If completing it in a word processor, just add as much space as you
need.
Question # 111 asks for a
Sketch of your farm. If you can do it electronically, merge it
with the questionnaire to send electronically. If you can't merge
it then send it attached to a separate e-Mail from the questionnaire. Send
it as a separate page if you are mailing a printed copy.
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