Quentin does not understand the criticisms against biodynamics. In 2022, the dairy farmer graduated with a professional agricultural business manager certificate (BPREA) with an organic and biodynamic orientation in Segré, in Maine-et-Loire. During his training, spread over two years, he and his comrades discovered the influence of “cosmic forces” and the Moon on the development of plants, or the importance of burying a cow’s horn filled with dung in winter. to store “the forces of life and the astral”… Concepts never scientifically demonstrated, coming from the imagination of Rudolf Steiner, the father of anthroposophy, a movement founded at the beginning of the 20th century whose dangers have been many times denounced by the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Sectarian Abuses (Miviludes).
“If I say that the buds of the oak swell according to the cycles of the planet Mars, you have the right to consider that it is esoteric, but it is factual”, nevertheless defends Quentin. During his patent, the young man also met biodynamic farmers working with “elemental beings” (gnomes, undines, sylphs and salamanders) invisible to the naked eye, whose existence was supported by Steiner in 1907 “It was a detail of our training. But when we have testimonies from farmers who say they have obtained results on the diseases of their plants after meditative work with these beings, we necessarily talk about it in our promotion,” assures Quentin. .
But what is such a hodgepodge of magical and outdated beliefs doing in a training course delivered by a public institution? At the head of the Centre for Professional Training and Agricultural Promotion (CFPPA) in Segré, where this diploma has existed since 2014, Lionel Aubert assures us that he has never heard of these esoteric practices. “I don’t even know who Steiner is or what anthroposophy is,” he maintains. “I dare to hope that the services of the Ministry of Agriculture would have alerted us if there was an esoteric approach.” Because this course, which welcomes around 18 students each year, benefits from public funds: between 10,000 and 13,000 euros per student, to which is added a monthly remuneration of 600 euros for trainees, paid by the Pays de la Loire region, the European Social Fund and Pôle emploi. When asked about this, the region did not respond to our requests.
Embarrassment at the Ministry
On the side of the Ministry of Agriculture, the embarrassment is palpable: “Biodynamics is indeed controversial, but many wine and agricultural estates in France adhere to it […]. Due to the principle of secularism, it is not up to us to deprive everyone of the freedom to believe or not to believe”, we are told. While specifying that instructions have been given to directors of establishments and to the decentralized services to ensure that these courses retain “their principle of neutrality”, “without promoting beliefs belonging to the anthroposophy movement”.
Because the training of Segré is not an isolated case. A similar course has existed since 1991 at the CFPPA in Obernai, in Alsace. This establishment, also public, has set up a professional certificate to become “manager of a biodynamic agricultural business”, financed to the tune of 80% by the Grand Est region. “This training responds to the demand of a new generation of operators who emerged in the 1970s in Alsace […]where there are now 93 areas certified in biodynamics”, justifies the latter, without detailing the amount of the subsidies.
It’s difficult not to see a link with anthroposophy when we look at the list of speakers within these two training courses. Among them: René Becker, the former secretary general of the Anthroposophical Society in France, and Jean-Michel Florin, co-director of the agriculture section of the Goetheanum, the headquarters of the Universal Anthroposophical Society. The latter is also coordinator within the Biodynamic Agriculture Movement (MABD), an organization which oversees the BPREAs of Segré and Obernai. The MABD recognizes the one-year training at Foyer Michaël, an anthroposophical center, “as equivalent to the compulsory internship allowing entry into BPREA”.
On its site, the MABD also sells a book that it publishes, Messages from elemental beingsin which the author, Karsten Massei, transcribes 24 verses that a “higher entity” living in a tree supposedly delivered to him. The preface to the book, written by Jean-Michel Florin, is edifying: “[…] meeting elemental beings does not consist of applying ready-to-use recipes which, moreover, do not exist; It is rather a question of developing an attitude of soul, an approach requiring first of all a wide inner opening by putting aside what one knows or thinks one knows.
Many dangers
“Biodynamics is a path towards the anthroposophical doctrine, deciphers Valéry Rasplus, sociologist and author ofa file on this movement. Introducing such courses in a public agricultural establishment, with anthroposophists as speakers who do not necessarily announce the colour, is to take the risk of seeing the establishment of latent proselytism, the aim of which is to attract new followers for the anthroposophical doctrine”, he continues. Questioned by L’Express, Jean-Michel Florin disputes: “I do not talk about anthroposophy to my students, nor about elementary beings. Ultimately, during breaks, if students are interested in these questions, I will give them book references, but this is a private matter,” he explains.
The trainer, who works two weeks a year in Segré and Obernai, says he concentrates with his students on observing plants and understanding their properties, as well as “mapping the atmospheres”. As for the influence of the stars, “our students have no obligation to take into account the cosmic calendar that we provide them at the start of the year, although our experience shows us that we obtain better results by respecting it”, he concludes.
However, this theory has long been disproven by various studies. Already in 1946, the magazine Nature published a meta analysis demonstrating that the Moon had no impact on various plant parameters, such as yields or germination dates. In 2020, a review of the literature also claimed that “popular agricultural practices linked to lunar phases have no scientific basis.” “In larger studies on the effectiveness of biodynamics, we always see results similar to those of organic farming. Apart from the esoteric varnish, the techniques are in fact similar, with the use of original phytosanitary products natural and often moderate tillage”, supports Cyril Gambari, doctor in microbiology, author ofa critical blog on biodynamics.
Trip to the Goetheanum
Nevertheless: in 2017 in Obernai, Théo remembers that, as part of a week of specialization in biodynamics (an option of the professional license in “organic agriculture”, distinct from the BPREA of the same establishment), all the speakers insisted on “the effects of stars and energies” and on the “superiority of biodynamics”. More serious according to him: a general course on “anthroposophic thought”, “where we were also told about Steiner’s theories on education”. Didier, a fellow student who is nevertheless a supporter of biodynamics, says nothing else: “It was very philosophical and complex, with a lot of references to Steiner, not only on agriculture.”
When contacted, the management of the CFPPA did not respond to our requests. Off the record, however, an executive from the establishment confides that the BPREA in biodynamics was frozen this year, in order to “regain control over the educational content”. In particular, the recruitment of students until then only carried out by the MABD, as well as courses “which related to Steiner’s texts”, carried out outside the establishment. “The region is very vigilant, because it knows that the subject of sectarian excesses is not far away,” he explains. Especially since a trip to the Goetheanum has been organized every year since the creation of the diploma, as part of the World Biodynamic Congress. “We are going to try to keep this stay, because the students are very happy to go there. In reality, the tensions come less from the region than from the management of the CFPPA,” says Jean-Michel Florin.
Victor*, a former student graduating in 2023, specifies for his part that “the trip was not obligatory”, the accommodation being “financed by the MABD”. However, he remembers that some MABD trainers “brought back important courses on spiritual elements”, such as elemental beings. “This must have happened three times at the start of the year. But as our class told them that these were not things that interested us, they ended up readjusting themselves,” explains the young man, for whom “the news generation of biodynamic farmers seeks to escape from these esoteric concepts.
There remain state subsidies. Asked about the start of the 2024 school year, the Grand Est region once again plans to finance “a maximum of 18 places for job seekers, via a public market with the CFPPA of Obernai.” On the content of the training, however, it never answered our questions. Behind the scenes, a regional elected official says he is attentive, but underlines the “sensitivity” around the subject: “No one wants to take the risk of tackling it head-on, because biodynamics is very established in the region.”
*The first name has been changed.
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