These are normal occurrences at the White Mountain Waldorf School in Albany. There, both a love of learning and being kind, helpful, and self-confident are interwoven into the carefully thought-out curriculum. (Tuesday May 26th, 2015 — Conway Daily Sun - North Conway, New Hampshire USA)

The report comes amid rapidly growing investments in wind power, which has been credited with cutting more carbon dioxide emissions and conserving more water than other energy sources. According to a report released in March, the U.S. is on track to draw 35 percent of its electricity from wind power by the year 2050. The department’s goal is to increase reliance on wind energy to 10 percent by 2020 and 20 percent by 2030. (Tuesday May 26th, 2015 — Huffington Post - USA)

HOW DID YOU GET THIS GREAT JOB? Waldorf education is simply healthy common sense. Waldorf Early Childhood teachers work with the natural impulse of childhood to learn through play, free movement and the innate ability to imitate all that surrounds them. Making use of it lays a strong foundation for intellectual development in the elementary school years and beyond. We honor the innate child's experience of himself and of the world, which is so different than that of an adult, and teach through our own actions, thus preserving a sense of the child's self-esteem, so necessary for healthy learning. (Saturday May 23rd, 2015 — Reno Gazette Journal - Reno, Nevada USA)

Now the school wants to build a community kitchen to provide more professional resources in a hi-tech venue, particularly for the high school food technology classes. (Thursday May 21st, 2015 — The Daily Telegraph - New South Wales, Australia)

PETALING JAYA: For the very first time, the Kolisko Conference will be held in Malaysia, from May 28 to 31. The conference, with the theme “Achieve individual health and community well-being”, is organised by the medical section of the School of Spiritual Science Gotheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, and the Anthroposophy Healthy Community Malaysia. (Wednesday May 20th, 2015 — The Star Online - Maylasia)

... the resident beekeepers at Wake Robin partnered with the Lake Champlain Waldorf School to educate one fifth grade class on the importance of the beekeeping process. This lesson is just one of the many ways the residents have worked with the Waldorf School to help expand the classroom. (Wednesday May 20th, 2015 — Shelburne News - Shelburne, Vermont USA)

The White House strategy lays out a goal to reduce winter losses of managed honeybees to no more than 15 percent in the next 10 years. Winter losses of managed honeybees for the 2014-2015 season topped 23.1 percent, according to a survey released last week. Beekeepers say that the maximum level of losses they can experience and still remain economically viable is 18.7 percent. Part of the White House’s strategy to reduce bee losses will be ramping up research and surveying efforts on honeybees, in an attempt to determine what stressors are most dangerous to bees and what are the best ways to manage bees’ habitat. (Tuesday May 19th, 2015 — ThinkProgress -USA)

Wholesome!™, the leading U.S. brand of Organic, Fair Trade and Non-GMO verified sugars and sweeteners, has announced that it has started selling Demeter Certified Biodynamic® Cane Sugar with Whole Foods Market. (Tuesday May 19th, 2015 — PR Newswire (press release) )

This past week United Kingdom-based newspaper The Independent examined the emergence of biodynamic winemaking in the global market, offering the reader background about the movement, its tenets and what kind of price tags you can expect. (Monday May 18th, 2015 — Snooth - New York, New York USA)

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 - )