One of the oldest biodynamic estates in the world says they don’t need chemicals in a great environment like this. (Saturday April 16th, 2016 — Gisborne Herald )

A French sailing boat packed with organic and biodynamic wine has arrived on British shores, as part of an initiative to make exports more environmentally friendly. (Thursday April 14th, 2016 — decanter.com)

For many wineries, every day is Earth Day as, more and more, they're committing to sustainable practices as a fundamental business model. One of the leaders in the movement is Benziger Family Winery in California. At this Sonoma Mountain site established in 1980, sustainability is a family affair with about two dozen people involved. Convinced that natural techniques yield more flavorful, aromatic grapes with more site-specific character, they converted the property into a biodynamic farm. (Wednesday April 13th, 2016 — Colorado Springs Gazette -- Colorado Springs, Colorado USA)

HAILED the father of local garlic by some locals, biodynamic Barrington farmer Jan Goroncy is nothing if not passionate about the produce he grows. “Dirt is so precious. Just smelling it and seeing the life in there, then knowing that that medium provides everything for us to survive... You have to look after it!” the former pianist said. (Friday April 8th, 2016 — Gloucester Advocate - Gloucester, New South Wales, Australia)

Horticulture teacher from High Mowing School, one of 120 Waldorf schools in the United States, uses intuition, curiosity and persistence to teach teenagers how to work in the garden -- and be in the world. (Tuesday April 5th, 2016 — PR Newswire (press release) )

Through lectures, discussions, sketches and debates, Grade 12 students at Whistler Waldorf School explore and discover a completely unfamiliar space reality. Throughout the course, the students develop their thinking skills to a high level of critical and creative capacities — a skill which educators around the world are advocating as essential for students graduating and working in the global environment of the 21st century. (Monday April 4th, 2016 — Whistler Question - Whistler. British Columbia Canada)

Millions of Nigerians are urging the Nigerian government to reject Monsanto’s attempts to introduce genetically modified (GMO) cotton and maize into the country’s food and farming systems. (Saturday April 2nd, 2016 — Alternet.org)

The global trend is towards biodynamic cuisine, even biodynamic wine. Our biodynamic coffee fetches us the best international prices,” says Manoj Kumar, CEO of Naandi Foundation, which has brought about a radical change in the lives of the adivasis in the 15 years they have worked here. ... though coffee is the second-most traded commodity in the world, its profit margins are wafer thin with too many price fluctuations that make growing coffee unviable for the small farmer. A better idea would be to export coffee, but there were too many intermediaries and Araku was not even known as a coffee-growing region. Naandi Foundation nudged the adivasi farmers to grow biodynamic coffee and helped set up cooperatives, that took most of the major decisions. (Saturday April 2nd, 2016 — The New Indian Express )

My fellow Tri-City News columnist Karen Curtis, who writes Market Fresh monthly, paid tribute last fall when our community lost biodynamic farming pioneer Mary Forstbauer. Mary passionately preached healthy soils, a practice the Forstbauer Family Natural Food Farm in Chilliwack has been doing for nearly three decades. (Saturday April 2nd, 2016 — The Tri-City News - Port Coquitlam, British Columbia Canada)

Shepherd Valley Waldorf, a small private school in Niwot, is lowering its tuition by about 40 percent next school year and promises not to raise it for the next three years. The goal, school officials said, is to make private school education more accessible and increase diversity at the preschool through eighth-grade school. (Saturday April 2nd, 2016 — Boulder Daily Camera - Boulder, Colorado USA)

Organic wine consumption worldwide is growing faster than wine consumption as a whole. According to the SAQ, sales rose from $29.4 million to $34.7 million between 2014 and 2015. So while wine sales have essentially flattened out, organic wine sales rose 18 per cent. This has led to more vineyards being converted from conventional to organic, or biodynamic, growing methods. (Friday April 1st, 2016 — Montreal Gazette - Montreal, Quebec Canada)

Camphill Communities has a lot to celebrate this year and most of it comes to fruition this month. The first, a global textile exhibition called World Wide Weave, arrives in Barrie next week. It coincides with the annual Community Action Award tribute dinner, which this year honours internationally renowned artist, goldsmith, teacher and humanitarian, Donald Stuart. ... The Barrie Camphill marks its 30th anniversary this year. (Friday April 1st, 2016 — The Barrie Examiner - Barrie, Ontario Canada)

Nearly a dozen fishing and environmental groups have filed suit against the Food and Drug Administration in an effort to block its recent approval of genetically modified salmon. The plaintiffs, represented by the Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice, argue that by green-lighting the first-ever genetically altered animal slated for human consumption, the FDA violated the law and ignored potential risks to wild salmon populations, the environment and fishing communities. (Thursday March 31st, 2016 — Huffington Post - USA)

Sounds that were previously incomprehensible to us now become the meaningful language of nature. In 1912, Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian initiate, scientist, artist and philosopher, brought a new art of movement into existence on the foundation of anthroposophy, which he called eurythmy. ... Eurythmy is speech and music made visible through conscious movements of the limbs. Eurythmy uses for its expression the most divine of all instruments, the human being. (Thursday March 31st, 2016 — Economic Times (blog) - The Times of India)

As part of this event, dozens of wine producers brought their wines to show to prospective importers. You would think that the best Italian wines already have importers. But that’s not always the case. Some wineries are from up-and-coming areas of Italy, some are small producers, and some are new. And many make wines that are trending in the world of wine: organic, biodynamic, rosé, and the new col fondo prosecco. (Thursday March 31st, 2016 — Palate Pres )

Homeopathy, holistic medicine, herbal medicine, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine will acquire the same status as conventional medicine by May 2017 when it comes to health insurance. (Tuesday March 29th, 2016 — swissinfo.ch)

"The increasing demand for organic products means that bigger volumes are destined for industrial processing with a high added value. In addition, over the past couple of years, we have introduced biodynamic products, which are very popular especially in Northern Europe," explains Antonio Codo, sales manager for Veritas Biofrutta srl. Veritas Biofrutta is the Gruppo Mazzoni company dedicated entirely to the sale of organic and biodynamic products. It was established in 2002 and currently manages around 15,000 tons of produce a year (apples, pears, kiwis, citrus fruit, vegetables and processed produce), representing 16% of the entire turnover of the group. (Friday March 25th, 2016 — FreshPlaza - The Netherlands)

The Longannet power station, the last and largest coal-fired power plant in Scotland, ceased operations Thursday. What once was the largest coal plant in Europe shut down after 46 years before the eyes of workers and journalists, who gathered in the main control room. (Thursday March 24th, 2016 — Think Progress- USA)

For the first time in 40 years, conservationists have made physical contact with a Sumatran rhino in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo: (Thursday March 24th, 2016 — Huffington Post - USA)

Renewable energy investment set a new world record in 2015, with emerging economies led by China topping the investment of developed nations for the first time, according to a United Nations-backed report unveiled Thursday. Last year, the world invested $286 billion in green energy — some 3 percent more than the last record set in 2011 — mostly on wind and solar, according to the report ... (Thursday March 24th, 2016 — Think Progress- USA)