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))

How the humble oyster is reviving a regional economy and helping to heal one of America's great wild-food factories. ... Shockley, Fitzhugh, and other proponents of shellfish aquaculture believe the practice could reestablish Maryland as a nationally renowned oyster powerhouse, on par with Virginia and Washington, two states that have farmed oysters for more than a century. Beyond that, aquaculture could help set the stage for restoring one of the country�s most complex and imperiled wild-food factories. The Chesapeake Bay once produced the largest oyster harvest in the world. But decades of overfishing, pollution, and state neglect have put the bay�s wondrous ecosystem on life support. A growing aquaculture industry might help it bounce back. (Thursday April 2nd, 2015 — Grist - USA)

Zoe Murkovich is a third grader at Nevada Sage Waldorf, a school that encourages bringing arts and academics together, a perfect place for the young artist who is gaining attention from the local art community. (Thursday April 2nd, 2015 — KRNV My News 4 - Reno, Nevada USA)

For the last 60 years, learning disabled residents in Botton have shared their homes with volunteer co-workers and their families in a unique shared-living arrangement. Camphill Village Trust are seeking to implement changes to the way it operates and make the volunteers paid employees, a move that will force them to live seperately from the residents. ... Today�s agreement ensures the villagers� traditional way of life will be maintained for the duration of the legal dispute before the court. (Wednesday April 1st, 2015 — Whitby Today - UK)

Andrea Zanfei and Valentina Libri's days are guided by the rhythms of nature. They work with lunar movements and seasons to make natural wines that reflect the personality of their land. Join Beers and Beans' Randy Kalp and Bethany Salvon as they volunteer at this beautiful biodynamic winery in Tuscany. (Monday March 30th, 2015 — Conde Nast Traveler )

The vague language in right-to-farm amendments can prevent states or localities from regulating any number of issues, from pollution, pesticide use, or animal abuse, no matter how much evidence there may be that a certain practice or company is harming the environment. It also makes it much harder to stop factory farms from poisoning water or air quality with noxious animal waste, or even keep track of repeat offenders. (Friday March 27th, 2015 — ThinkProgress -USA)

In a recent column, the New York Times' Mark Bittman makes an important point about the controversy around genetically modified foods. "[T]o date there's little credible evidence that any food grown with genetic engineering techniques is dangerous to human health," he writes. Yet the way the technology has been used�mainly, to engineer crops that can withstand herbicides�is deeply problematic, he argues. ... humanity has thrived for millennia despite the scourge of fast-browning apples and potatoes. The same isn't true for ever-increasing deluges of toxic herbicides. (Thursday March 26th, 2015 — MotherJones - USA)

Two common Big Agriculture production practices -- feeding antibiotics to livestock and spraying herbicides on conventional crops -- each face condemnation from the environmental community. And there's been plenty of new fodder in the last week: One study predicted that antibiotic use in livestock will soar by two-thirds globally from 2010 to 2030, and another declared that Monsanto's popular Roundup herbicide is "probably carcinogenic to humans." (Tuesday March 24th, 2015 — Huffington Post - USA)

In 2005, England introduced incentives to farmers to plant more bee-friendly flowers on their land. Similar incentives also exist in the E.U. These agri-environmental schemes have been shown to attract bees a provide them with a good source of food, but the new paper shows for the first time that they are also associated with increased populations. (Tuesday March 24th, 2015 — Care2Causes)

The Latin American country hasn�t had to use fossil fuels at all so far in 2015, due to heavy rains that have kept hydroelectric power plants going strong. Wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy have also helped power the country this year. (Monday March 23rd, 2015 — ThinkProgress -USA)

Would-be beekeepers learn the trade. (Sunday March 15th, 2015 — Bend Bulletin - Central Oregon, USA)

�This is the largest bio-dynamic plot in the world, spread over 25,000 acres, and nowhere this sort of topography is seen. More than 2,000 Girijan families here are cultivating coffee in the biodynamic method and getting very good results and much better income. We are encouraging them to grow mango trees, Banginapalli variety, and the results would be good. Seven lakh mango saplings have been planted during the last three years�, CEO of Naandi Foundation Manoj Kumar said. (Saturday March 14th, 2015 — The Hindu - India)