60,000 new farmers are needed in the next decade in the UK to fill all the positions of retiring farmers. The average age of farmers in the UK is 55, and half of all farmers do not have a successor to take over the farm when they retire.
Global warming and peak oil are two other urgent factors that will define how we will produce our food in the next decade or two. At the moment farming, food transport and processing use 10 calories of fossil fuel for every 1 calorie of food energy it produces: a situation that is hugely unsustainable.
Do something about it...
...instead of feeling overwhelmed by these sorts of statistics, many people want to do something now! They want to be part of the solutions for sustainable food production for now and the near future.
So what's the deal with Biodynamics?
Biodynamic farming offers very efficient tools and techniques of food production, bringing back the concept of the farm organism – a mixed farm where optimum recycling of nutrients, waste and energy takes place. A place also of beauty and healing, since man lives not by bread alone: most people feel completely alienated by the industrial huge scale approach of modern chemical farming.
Biodynamic farms are places of sustainable food production, but also places where people meet, live, where communities develop between producers and consumers, and where there is space for the less-abled in society.
Why should I get involved?
If you want to be part of the change, from impersonal vast scale industrial chemical farming, to a social, spiritual, human and ecological form of farming – then a career in biodynamic farming is for you.
What's special about Emerson's course?
The Biodynamic Organic Agriculture Training at Emerson College is a unique course in biodynamic farming – the only accredited biodynamic farming course in English in the whole world. Graduates from our course run biodynamic farms on all continents, they work in Camphill centres, they run community farm projects, they are involved in the Transition Networks, and they produce wholesome food without destroying the Earth.
What will I learn?
During the training students do a holistic study of plants and animals, but also explore what conventional science has to offer about soils, plants and technology. We use art and explore the philosophical roots of biodynamics – and of course we teach how to drive a tractor, how to maintain our equipment, how to sow, plant, prune and graft, harvest and store fruit and vegetables. We teach you how to milk and feed cows, how to calculate the fodder rations and how to raise animals true to their being. The Biodynamic Organic Agriculture Training is an all-round training for students who would like to run their own smallholding or enterprise after the course!