The market owner won't sell octopus products after playing hide-and-seek with a friendly cephalopod. (Friday May 25th, 2018 — HuffPost - USA)

The U.S. Justice Department this month is expected to approve a merger of two huge corporations ― St. Louis-based seed company Monsanto and German crop-chemical conglomerate Bayer ― and the consequences could be enormous. (Friday May 25th, 2018 — HuffPost - USA)

n the past, lawsuits have attempted to establish that RoundUp causes cancer, which Johnson, a groundskeeper, is also doing but he's added a ground-breaking allegation to his lawsuit: he claims that Monsanto has been involved in a lengthy coverup to showcase its glyphosate-containing products are safe when they may not actually be. So, beginning on June 18 Monsanto faces allegations that it has spent decades hiding information linking its products to cancer. (Thursday May 24th, 2018 — Care2.com - USA)

Demeter, the ancient Greek goddess of grain and fertility, is the name of a modern international organization that since 1928 has fostered biodynamic agricultural practices that recognize and nurture the living ecosphere of soils, plants and animals. (Wednesday May 23rd, 2018 — Mail Tribune - Medford, Oregon USA)

This is Camp Altiplano, where volunteers are using simple practices such as creating ponds and loosening hard earth to return the soil to health. ... In focusing on soil, Camp Altiplano's ultimate goal is to learn how to bring degraded land back to life. If current rates of global soil degradation continue, it�s estimated we may only have 60 years of farming left. What's more, restoring degraded soil worldwide has the potential to remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, meaning soils can play an important role in climate change mitigation. (Thursday May 17th, 2018 — HuffPost - USA)

Reports from China, India, Southeast Asia and Africa suggest that average yield increases of 20 to 50 percent are regularly being achieved by farmers adopting the "system of rice intensification" (SRI), which aims to stimulate the root system of plants rather than trying to increase yields in the conventional way by using improved seeds and synthetic fertilizers. ... SRI, in contrast, involves the careful spacing of fewer but younger plants, keeping the topsoil around the plants well-aerated by weeding, using manure and avoiding flooding. (Tuesday May 15th, 2018 — HuffPost - USA)

Talk to winegrowers who have adopted biodynamic farming techniques in their vineyards and they'll often tell you how their wines now express a clearer taste of terroir in the glass. By focusing on a holistic approach to the health of the soil and the plants, they argue, the biodynamic system of organic farming � first outlined by Rudolf Steiner in a series of lectures to farmers in the 1920s - helps the vines produce grapes that have a more distinct flavour of where they're grown. (Wednesday May 9th, 2018 — The Australian Financial Review )

Winchester artist Ruth Lieberherr ... Her work is influenced by philosopher Rudolf Steiner. He is the creator of anthroposophy and founder of Waldorf education. According to the Waldorf education website, "at the heart of anthroposophy is the belief that humanity has the wisdom to transform itself and the world, through one's own spiritual development." (Thursday May 3rd, 2018 — Wicked Local - Winchester, Virginia USA)

European nations will not allow three popular neonicotinoids, clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, to be sprayed on fields. Although the EU previously had a partial ban on using these particular pesticides on flowering plants that are particularly attractive to bees, that step was deemed insufficient given the continued harm they did to the bee population. (Saturday April 28th, 2018 — Care2.com - USA)

It helps water find a rhythm between a Main Street storm drain and the riverbank. It is both a small and a large gesture. A statement. A wish for a troubled river. ... Flowforms, as they are called, purify and aerate water by mimicking its natural and most harmonious flow, said Rachel Fletcher, founder and director of the Housatonic River Walk, a National Recreation Trail, which installed these in 1994. (Tuesday April 24th, 2018 — Berkshire Eagle - Great Barrington, Massachusetts USA)

With the increasing spotlight on conservation around the world, more vineyards are committed to sustainability and becoming biodynamic now than ever before, adhering to the principles of the philosopher Rudolf Steiner. He believed that the position of the moon and stars within specific constellations and times of year influenced the growth of the vines, roots, flowers, and fruit. Many such vineyards go the extra mile, by resorting to "dry-farming" principles, plowing the soil with livestock and hand-picking the grapes. Herewith, AD lists the most beautiful biodynamic vineyards around the world: (Sunday April 22nd, 2018 — Architectural Digest )

Biodynamic farming was founded by Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner in the 1920s to counter the emergence of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. It views soil health, vegetation and livestock management holistically and focuses on enhancing soil fertility. But the dry and challenging conditions faced by Australia's soils are in contrast to the rich, moist climates of Europe where the Koenigs began farming. (Sunday March 18th, 2018 — ABC Online - Australia)

The pigments, Potts and his co-authors now believe, were part of a prehistoric trade network—one that existed 100,000 years earlier than scientists previously thought. (Thursday March 15th, 2018 — Smithsonian online - USA)

"Regenerative Organic Certification builds upon the near 100-year legacy of organic movement visionaries like J. I. Rodale and Dr. Rudolf Steiner and provides stepwise guidance for farming and ranching operations, transportation, slaughter, and processing facilities that produce food, cosmetics, and fiber," says the coalition's website. (Thursday March 15th, 2018 — One Green Planet )

His mother is a Lakota speaker but chose not to teach it to her children. Now Firethunder is the Lakota language and cultural coordinator at the Lakota Waldorf School on that reservation. (Wednesday March 14th, 2018 — New York Nonprofit Media )

The following excerpts appeared at Rural America In These Times under the headline In Less Than One Generation, We've Lost More Than 10 Million Acres of the Best U.S. Farmland: (Tuesday March 6th, 2018 — Daily Kos - USA)

So as the naturals market balloons, forward-thinking beauty brands are forging the next phase in farm-to-face beauty by beginning to place an emphasis on biodynamics. The standards for growing biodynamic crops far surpass those for organic ones. (Monday March 5th, 2018 — Well+Good - New York, New York, USA)

Berkshire Waldorf High School life science teacher Lee Magadini has been awarded a year-long internship with the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, working with the Climate Change Research Initiative. Magadini is one of four interns chosen from among thousands of applicants. (Friday March 2nd, 2018 — iBerkshires.com - North Adams, Massachusetts, USA)

The doomsday seed vault in Norway is getting a $13 million upgrade designed to protect its priceless cache of seeds from the rising threat of climate change. (Wednesday February 28th, 2018 — Daily Kos - USA)

For the past six months, Pasadena Waldorf High School students Ellie Shakespeare (12th grade) and Oliviana Marie (9th grade) have been working hard writing and refining their original musical The Middle of Nowhere as part of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts’ “Creating Musical Theatre” program. In February, the duo presented their musical to legendary multiple Oscar and Grammy winning composer and writer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pocahontas, Enchanted, Pippin, Godspell) in Beverly Hills. Schwartz, known for his mentoring of new writers, spent the afternoon offering Ellie and Oliviana feedback and advice regarding their show. (Tuesday February 27th, 2018 — Pasadena Now )