The Agriculture Course lectures were given by Rudolf Steiner 100 years ago (1924) when industrial farming was first on the rise and organic methods were being replaced in the name of science, efficiency and technology. With the widespread alarm over the quality of food in recent years, and the growth of the organic movement and its mainstream acceptance, perceptions are changing. The qualitative aspect of food and its relationship to the health of the soil is once again on the agenda, and in this context Rudolf Steiner’s only course of lectures on agriculture is critical to the current debate.

With the Agriculture Course lectures, Steiner created and launched ‘biodynamic’ farming – a specific form of agriculture which has come to be regarded as ‘premium organic’. However, the agriculture Steiner speaks of in this book is much more than organic, and involves working with the spiritual dynamics of the cosmos as well as those of the earth. To facilitate this, Steiner prescribes specific ‘preparations’ for the soil, as well as other distinct methods born from his profound understanding of the material as well as spiritual worlds. He presents a comprehensive picture of the complex dynamic relationships at work in nature and gives basic indications of the practical measures which are necessary for bringing them into full play.

These lectures are reprinted here in the ‘classic’ translation made by Rudolf Steiner’s English interpreter George Adams. This edition also features a Preface by Steiner’s colleague the medical doctor Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, as well as eight colour plates.