Benno Tempel, director of The Hague's Gemeentemuseum, which owns about a quarter of all surviving Mondrian works. The museum is exhibiting "The Discovery of Mondrian" through Sept. 24 ... Tempel thanks Austrian spiritualist Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), who founded something called anthroposophy, with Mondrian's decision to pivot away from an unsuccessful body of highly symbolic works. "Mondrian writes a letter to Rudolf Steiner about his paintings, and he does not react," Tempel said. "What if Steiner was very enthusiastic and said, 'Come over to my place. You can be the painter of our movement'? That would have been a horror for history." (Saturday July 15th, 2017 — National Catholic Reporter - Kansas City, Missouri USA)

Southbrook already holds the designation of being the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold-level winery in Canada, and its vineyards are certified organic and biodynamic - even the sheep, who roam through the rows of vines eating weeds and bugs, are fed organically-grown hay (Thursday July 13th, 2017 — Niagara Advance - Niagara On The Lake, Ontario CANADA)

Sustainable wine farming isn't just about the grapes - it's about all elements involved in making wine, from lighter bottles and composting to protecting air quality and giving back to the community. We spoke to Roland Peens, Director of Wine Cellar: Fine Wine Merchants & Cellarers and winemaker Johan Reyneke of Reyneke Wines about the true meaning of sustainability in winemaking. ... Not only are old vines now being farmed better and more sustainably, but new vineyards are being farmed better and, therefore, producing better wines. (Wednesday July 12th, 2017 — Bizcommunity.com - South Africa)

The culinary directive from Congress and the White House this summer goes something like this: Don’t worry. Shut up and eat your Frankenfoods, cheap junk foods, and factory-farmed meat, dairy and poultry. Don’t worry about Monsanto’s Roundup or Dow’s neonic residues in your food and water. Don’t worry about the dubious fare at your local supermarkets, including thousands of products fraudulently labeled or advertised as “natural.” (Tuesday July 11th, 2017 — Organic Consumers Association - Finland, Minnesota USA)

In the 21st Century, we’re poised to use more renewable energy sources than ever before, including those from wind or water. ... But where in the world will all this renewable power come from? (Tuesday July 11th, 2017 — BBC online - UK)

[Laura di Collobiano]and others in the same field of biodynamic farming, see themselves not as “fighters of disease but as creators of health” (another expression). It was fascinating to hear how it can be practical to be healthy, practical to cooperate with other farmers and makers of wine in an atmosphere where people are glad for the variety of products, realizing that no one person or azienda can do or make everything. And it turns out the 70% of agriculture in Lucca is in fact biodynamic, encouraging also. (Tuesday July 11th, 2017 — HuffPost - USA)

Robots could one day be trundling down vineyard rows, plucking leaves, estimating yields, spraying fruit and harvesting bunches of grapes to make Marlborough sauvignon blanc. The use of robots in the vineyard was discussed at the Organic and Biodynamic Winegrowers Conference, which was being held over three days in Blenheim, at the ASB Theatre. (Friday June 30th, 2017 — Stuff.co.nz - Wellington, New Zealand)

The listing is the latest legal setback for the company, which has faced increasing litigation over glyphosate since WHO said that it was “probably carcinogenic.” (Tuesday June 27th, 2017 — Huffington Post - USA)

That’s the main finding of a new report from Pew Research Center, which reveals that more millennials use their local libraries than other adult generations. Pew’s data, collected in a survey administered during fall 2016, found that 53% of millennials said they’d used a library or bookmobile in the previous 12 months. (Tuesday June 27th, 2017 — Daily Good: Good Education)

Barrio Logan’s Café Virtuoso has sourced only organic coffee from its inception. This year it’s gone a step further: sourcing certified biodynamic beans. (Monday June 26th, 2017 — San Diego Reader - San Diego, California USA)

Following a 17-hour journey by car, boat and foot, they were released in the Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park. (Monday June 26th, 2017 — Care2.com - USA)

Biodynamic wine is made and grown on the principles established by Rudolf Steiner. Biodynamic farming is by default organic, but considers the farm as part of a total living system. This includes the influence of the moon and planets, and the entire interdependent ecosystem of wildlife, natural habitat, vineyards and people. (Friday June 23rd, 2017 — Bizcommunity.com - South Africa)

An 81-year-old who set up an all-woman rubbish collection team in her village in Lebanon now has a stream of visitors asking how she did it. (Thursday June 8th, 2017 — BBC online - UK)

Built by the company Sungrow Power Supply, the power plant will produce enough energy to power 15,000 homes, Zheng reports. (Wednesday June 7th, 2017 — Smithsonian online - USA)

The details of this transition are spelled out in a new, must-read, 4000-word article in the Financial Times, “The Big Green Bang: how renewable energy became unstoppable.” What is most remarkable about the article is that it appears in the Financial Times. The free-market oriented paper is the “most important business read” for the world’s top financial decision makers and “the most credible publication in reporting financial and economic issues” for global professional investors, according to surveys. (Tuesday May 23rd, 2017 — Think Progress - USA)

UPDATE: Success! Sherman County has agreed to work on a weed management plan with Azure Farms that does not include the spraying of toxic chemicals. Original Action Alert County officials want to spray a 2,000-acre certified organic farm in Oregon with Monsanto’s cancer-causing Roundup and other pesticides—and force the farm to pay for it! (Tuesday May 23rd, 2017 — Organic Consumers Association - Finland, Minnesota USA)

In Yellowstone, the wolves quickly reclaimed their spot as top predator. Ecologist William Ripple of Oregon State University has been studying the wolves since their return. He found that, within a decade of their release, the wolves had cut the number of elk – their main prey – by half. The surviving elks avoided the wolves' core range and stayed on the periphery. Woody trees like aspen and willow, which had been chewed and trimmed by zealous elks, now grew tall and lush. (Tuesday May 23rd, 2017 — BBC online - UK)

... they are sending them to the Cardiff Steiner School which is opening its first upper school in September this year extending classes to pupils aged 13 and 14 who will be able to stay until they are 18 working towards the internationally recognised New Zealand Steiner Certificate. Instead of being tested and taking exams over four years for GCSE, AS and A levels pupils follow a broad, assessed curriculum, including a compulsory modern foreign language from age six. (Friday May 19th, 2017 — WalesOnline - Cardiff, Wales UK)

Federal judge rules agency should consider impact of new pesticides on endangered species. (Thursday May 11th, 2017 — Star Tribune - Minneapolis, Minnesota USA)

Steiner gave a series of nine lectures on the importance of bees and the beehive to the ecosystem. The lectures are about “the unconscious wisdom contained in the beehive” and how the beehive “relates to the human experiences of health, civilization, and the cosmos,” according to the Rudolf Steiner Archive. (Wednesday May 10th, 2017 — VinePair - )