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Life comes from the whole
universe, not merely from what the Earth provides. Nature is a
unity, with forces working in from all sides.... when we are able to
find our way back to the macrocosm, then we will once again begin to
understand something about nature — and about many other things too.
RUDOLF STEINER, Agriculture, p. 130 |
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Links:
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 Mac Mead
Mac Mead, principal course instructor, has more than
25 years of farm-based production experience in sustainable/biodynamic
enterprises. He graduated from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania with a
degree in psychology. After college he was a co-worker at the Camphill
Village (a community providing residential care for children with
disabilities) in Copake, New York, from 1972 to 1974, where he did
gardening, therapeutic work and also taught at the fledgling Waldorf
School. Mac was in charge of food production at the Fellowship Community
(a community based on the care of the elderly) from 1975 to 2005 and in
2007 joined the Pfeiffer Center staff as Program Director.
As program director of the Pfeiffer Center, he runs a
two-acre vegetable, flower, herb and dye plant garden as well as an
apiary. In addition to the one-year part-time training in biodynamics,
his teaching activities include apprentice training, teacher training,
teaching students from Sunbridge College, working with public school
children, working with schools to create school gardens, and workshops
on biodynamic beekeeping
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GUNTHER HAUK
Gunther Hauk was born in Yugoslavia and raised in
Germany. He emigrated to the United States in 1956, where he finished
high school and attended university and graduate school. He received an
MACT degree from the University of Tennessee and taught at Allegheny
College for three years, before completing his Waldorf teacher training
in Germany. After 22 years of being a gardening teacher at two German
Waldorf schools, he returned to the US to help found the Pfeiffer Center
for Biodynamics and Environmental Studies. In 2007 he moved to Illinois
to help start a biodynamic farm and honeybee sanctuary at Spikenard
Farm.
He is the author of Toward Saving the Honeybee,
published by the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association. He joined
the Biodynamic Association Board of Directors in March, 2003.
Website:
www.spikenardfarm.org
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 Will Brinton
William Brinton holds degrees in agronomy, soil and
plant science, and environmental science and is the founder of Woods End
Research Laboratory, located in Mt. Vernon, Maine. Together with an
office in New York state and a partner office in Bonn, Germany, Woods
End focuses on compost analyses and process management.
Dr. Brinton’s firm is widely recognized for compost
assessment and comparative field studies for quality waste to soil
application. He has recently been nominated to the Soil Science Society
soil testing committee. He is active in numerous agricultural
associations and has published more than 30 scientific papers on compost
and horticultural topics.
Website:
www.solvita.com
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Hugh Williams
For 30 years, Hugh Williams has been successfully
growing fruit on a commercial scale without relying on conventional
applications of chemical insecticides or herbicides. Williams's peaches,
apples, and pears have been in great demand for their quality and
exceptional taste. In the face of open skepticism over the feasibility
of growing fruit in the Northeast without chemical sprays, Williams
regularly gives lectures and workshops on successful orchard management
using organic and biodynamic principles. At Threshold Farm in Philmont,
New York, Williams supervises a mixed biodynamic farm offering a full
range of vegetables, apples, peaches & pears; grassfed meat products,
jams, pickles & preserves. Threshold Seeds, Inc. encourages associative,
regional, on-farm seed production and is a source for biodynamic seeds.
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 Steffen Schneider
Steffen Schneider is principal herdsman of the dairy
herd at Hawthorne Valley Farm in Ghent, New York. While studying
agriculture in Germany, he became interested in biodynamics and came to
Hawthorne Valley as an apprentice. After a stint in Wisconsin to help
start a biodynamic farm, he returned to Hawthorne Valley in 1989 and has
been there ever since. As well as managing the 65-head herd of Holsteins
and Brown Swiss, he is an active participant in the educational and
outreach programs of the farm.
http://www.hawthornevalleyfarm.com/
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 Craig Holdrege
Craig Holdrege, biologist and educator, is Director of
The Nature Institute, a not-for-profit research and education
organization that pioneers a unique qualitative approach to science,
having spearheaded the Institute’s founding in 1998. He is the author of
Genetics and the Manipulation of Life (Lindisfarne Press, 1996).
Craig’s articles on cloning and genetic engineering
have appeared in American and European journals. During the past ten
years he has given many lectures and workshops on biotechnology in the
U.S. and Europe.
Craig has been a high school biology teacher since
1980 and has taught for over a decade at the Hawthorne Valley School in
rural Ghent, New York. He has also been involved in teacher training
since 1989.
Website:
www.natureinstitute.org
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Jennifer Greene
Jennifer Greene holds degrees in biology, sculpture
and education, and trained at the Institute for Flow Sciences in
Germany. Since the 1980's she has been a pioneer of flow forms in the
United States, and has carried on the pioneering work of Theodor Schwenk
in documenting water quality through the "drop picture" method. Her
innovative approach to the nature of water is attracting increasing
attention from the international community, including an invitation to
be a presenter at the World Water Forums in the Hague, 2000, and in
Kyoto, 2003.
As Executive Director of the Water Research Institute
of Blue Hill, Maine, she consults on wastewater and sludge, and on
surface water management. She has provided artistic design for the City
of New York, Santa Cruz and Fresno (California), and Seattle
(Washington), and has designed reproducible water features throughout
the United States. Currently she is involved in the development of a
unique four-part documentary series entitled "Water: The Language of
Nature."
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THE CAMPUS
The grounds of the Threefold Educational Foundation and Sunbridge College
in Chestnut Ridge, New York (formerly Spring Valley), include the site of
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s research garden.
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FURTHER INFORMATION
THE PFEIFFER CENTER
260 HUNGRY HOLLOW ROAD
CHESTNUT RIDGE, NY 10977
PHONE: 845.352.5020, EXT. 20
FAX: 845.352.5071
E-MAIL: info@pfeiffercenter.org
ON THE WEB: www.pfeiffercenter.org
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| Within the last century, our relationship
to the environment has changed dramatically. We have sought to gain
control over nature, but have neglected her basic holistic wisdom. The
consequences speak clearly: Our trees are dying, our top soils
disappearing, the vitality of plant and animal life is deteriorating, the
earth and its waters are foully polluted... and now we are beginning to
experiment with genetic engineering that would force other living things
to conform to our limited understanding of life. The outcome may be a
future we neither intend nor desire. Already in
1924, Rudolf Steiner warned of the dangers in a one-sided materialism that
seeks to bend nature to the will and service of humanity. He pointed the
way to a broader understanding of agriculture as a partnership with
nature, wherein all life, from the tiniest microbe to the farthest reaches
of the heavens, plays an interactive and indispensable role.
Steiner’s approach has come to be known as biodynamics.
Researched and practiced all over the world for the last 75 years, it has
yielded exceptional results. This one-year, part-time course is devoted to
teaching the principles and applications of biodynamics as we know them
today. It is offered in the conviction that this is the best way to ensure
not only a sustainable, but a thriving agriculture – and the best
nutrition. |
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