Method already adopted by large reputable French wineries (Saturday May 16th, 2015 — iNVEZZ - UK)

The Waldorf School on the Roaring Fork has attempted to link the ways the arts are used in the school’s curriculum to its 10th annual fundraising gala, aiming for an event that’s in the same spirit as the education movement founded by Rudolf Steiner that now boasts schools in 60-some countries. Friday’s event – “Envision: Hands & Heart” - will highlight aspects of its curriculum through the work of eight international folk artists and nine local artists. (Friday May 15th, 2015 — Aspen Times - Aspen, Colorado USA)

This year, more than a dozen area students were honored for their community contributions with the annual Peacemaker Awards. ... Leela Kurzmann, a senior at Monadnock Waldorf School, has given up traditional summer vacations to fly across the world and help orphans. She’s taken three summer-long trips to India with her parents and students from the Northfield Mount Hermon School to work in the Joy Bells Orphanage. There, she helped younger children study English. She also raises money for Joy Bells, as well as to help other students travel to India to work at the orphanage. Kurzmann also volunteers in Big Brothers Big Sisters and at a community meal site. (Friday May 15th, 2015 — GazetteNET - Northampton, Massachusetts USA)

Several industrial dairy producers in Washington state agreed to implement sweeping changes to their operations this week. The agreement is part of a court settlement that brings an end to months of legal battles over dairy producers’ role in the pollution of drinking water in eastern Washington. (Thursday May 14th, 2015 — ThinkProgress -USA)

The Waldorf School in New Orleans is located in a renovated bread factory in the Irish Channel. That’s appropriate, because, while other schools have recently been adding arts integration and experiential learning into their educational mix, the Waldorf method has been doing it for nearly a century. A Waldorf education is designed to teach the whole child, and focuses on the individual. Developed by German philosopher Rudolf Steiner in 1919, this teaching approach was partly a response to the times. (Thursday May 14th, 2015 — NolaVie - New Orleans, Louisiana USA)

Just weeks after announcing that Whole Foods was expanding regional distribution of Nello's Sauce to 140 stores from Texas to New Jersey—doubling the amount of tomatoes he processes each month—McTighe reveals the chain awarded him a loan to introduce a new product with specific local ingredients. "It is truly groundbreaking," McTighe says. "It's the first in their business's history to support biodynamic agriculture. The real kicker is that this will be the first biodynamic, U.S.-grown, U.S.-made, tomato sauce ever. And we're doing it right here in North Carolina." Other sauces labeled organic and biodynamic contain non-U.S.-grown ingredients or were produced outside of America, most likely in Italy, McTighe says. (Wednesday May 13th, 2015 — The Independent Weekly - North Carolina USA)

For a winery or a vineyard to refer to itself as biodynamic it must have achieved certification through Demeter International, named after the Greek goddess of grain and fertility and based in Germany, by adhering to the Demeter Farm Standard for a minimum of three years if it had previously been conventionally farmed, or a minimum of one year if it had been organically farmed. And it gets more complex still. The entire farm, or vineyard, must be certified, not just a portion of land within the farm. Demeter inspectors make annual checks to make sure that makers still qualify and nobody can call their wine biodynamic without their approval. (Wednesday May 13th, 2015 — The Independent - UK)

Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs students had a very productive Earth Day! The Times Union and The Saratogian both reported that the students helped restore a 1.5-acre section of Karner blue butterfly habitat in Saratoga Spa State Park, completing a $10,000 restoration project that began last fall. (Thursday April 30th, 2015 — Saratoga.com - Saratoga Springs, New York USA)

Biodynamic followers believe that certain days have optimal conditions for planting, pruning and tending crops based on the cycles of the moon and that the ‘forces of growth’ coming from the moon are the strongest. An astronomical calendar has been developed based on careful observations of the rhythms of the moon, the moon cycles and its placement in the astrological signs. The calender specifi es fruit, root, fl ower or leaf days. Days with optimal conditions for particular tasks ... (Friday April 24th, 2015 — Westman Journal - Brandon and Western Manitoba Canada)

Anne-Claude Leflaive: Winemaker who overcame bitter opposition to establish Domaine Leflaive as a leading producer of white burgundy (Monday April 20th, 2015 — The Independent - UK)

Until next year, when it can open a retail space, the vineyard will concentrate on small lots of wines made from classic grapes or vinifera chosen for the local microclimate. Lightfoot says the emphasis is on biodynamic agriculture in a certified organic vineyard. (Monday April 20th, 2015 — Kings County Register/Advertiser - )

As Global Soil Week gets underway Sunday (19.04.2015), DW takes a closer look at this controversial farming method. What's behind biodynamic agriculture - does it work? And can it help feed the planet sustainably? (Friday April 17th, 2015 — Deutsche Welle - Germany)

Andrew Stewart has steered Model Milk’s wine program in an organic/biodynamic direction. He admits that biodynamics, with its mystical side, can sound a bit “witchy,” but he argues that it is based on sound principles. “A farm or vineyard is viewed wholly as its own ecosystem with every creature, plant and microbe within it playing a part,” he explains. (Friday April 17th, 2015 — Calgary Herald - Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

The High Court will not intervene in the ongoing dispute over proposed changes to the way Botton Village operates. Three residents from the village had claimed that planned adaptations to current living arrangements amount to a breach of the residents’ rights under Article 8(1) European Convention on Human Rights. (Thursday April 16th, 2015 — Whitby Today - UK)

Biodynamic viticulture pursues a set of organic agricultural practices devised by Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s and is currently certified by the nonprofit Demeter association. The practice treats the vineyard as a self-sustaining ecosystem, employing a lunar cultivation calendar and the application of special preparations to improve productivity. (Tuesday April 14th, 2015 — Santa Barbara Independent - Santa Barbara, California)

Here is a unique way to learn the alphabet. Trace the letter ‘M’ from a picture of snowy mountains and ‘V’ from deep valleys, spot ‘W’ hidden in blue waves and ‘S’ from the snake rushing to keep an appointment. In Waldorf education, children learn the alphabet by drawing letters in the air with their hands, on the floor with their feet and through images and stories that excite their rich imagination. This concept is Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy on education. (Saturday April 11th, 2015 — The New Indian Express - Chennai. India)

Australia’s Hippocampus Metropolitan Distillery has introduced its first small batch spirit – an organic vodka which is made using “biodynamic” farmed wheat. (Tuesday April 7th, 2015 — The Spirits Business - London, England UK)

Biodynamic farming uses organic or natural fertilisers with devotees looking to the moon's cycle to indicate days to plant and harvest. In biodynamic winemaking, the lunar cycle outlines four, three-day periods called flower day, fruit day, root day and leaf day. Dr Carpenter said grape picking to make vignoles, a white wine, is to be conducted in the middle of the fruit day period just a few days prior to a blood moon lunar eclipse. (Monday April 6th, 2015 — ABC Online - Northern Territory, Australia)

This necessarily demands an elaborate calendar, sorting the seeds by their celestial influence. A model was one produced annually by a German farmer, Maria Thun, from the 1960s until her death at 89 in 2012. By that year, biodynamic techniques were in use on some 142,500 hectares in 47 countries, almost half of these in German farms and gardens and quite a few in Ireland (go to biodynamic.ie). (Friday April 3rd, 2015 — Irish Times - Dublin, Ireland)

Green Meadow Waldorf School’s robotics team, The PolyGnomes, recently won the Super Regional competition in Scranton, PA, and are headed to the World Championships in St. Louis on April 21. (Thursday April 2nd, 2015 — PR Web (press release))