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Why Spiritual Food
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Diet being one of the important elements in the practice of yoga, we were led to search for good quality food. The role of the process of growing the food was important to make the choice, which was not difficult once we found the form of agriculture offered by Rudolf Steiner. This form of agriculture not only ensures extraordinary nutritional value from a physical point of view-- that means mineral and vitamin content, etc. --but nutritional value from a spiritual perspective, since it includes the integration of positive, subtle cosmic and human forces. Additionally, the farmers practicing this form of agriculture, at the time when we started our search, were joined in a cohesive manner by a common denominator: the teachings of Anthroposophy, a Spiritual Science, as defined by Rudolf Steiner, the founder of this school of thought. The method was not meant to be exclusive; the proof is that nowadays it is practiced all over the world by farmers and individuals that have come to the realization of the great benefits that it brings for humans and the planet as a whole, since its emphasis is on healing the soil. Our admiration was expressed in writing in Biodynamic Farmer: Backbone of a Spiritual (R)evolution, published in 1997. As we approached the organization that groups the farmers in the USA, we found our capacities could contribute to the effort of supporting this form of agriculture, threatened by the commercial “all for profit” tendency increasingly dominating this field of human activity with nefarious consequences for the health of human beings and the planet. That is when A Plan of Action was designed, that gave birth to Spiritual Food for the New Millennium, which represents a commitment to develop a concerted effort to support the movement by offering a venue to facilitate the contact between farmers and users. The potential that this symbiosis had to contribute to bring peace to the planet is described in Peaceful (R)evolution, which details how food grown in this manner, with positive subtle forces, enhances the natural spiritual nature of man in his search for inner peace. This special food, then, is the ideal support for the practice of Yoga that leads us to the attainment of self-realization, or perfect inner peace. Articles published in Pathways magazine report the coming to light of the project. The Spiritual Food for the New Millennium article explains the importance of this form of agriculture. The article “Eating: A Spiritual Practice” explains how food has such an important impact on our process of spiritual growth. Finally “Forces of Life Within You” covers the potential to bring about a societal transformation, by going back to the root of societal organization—“agriculture”—land stewardship, and the responsibility and possibilities that are open to us as human beings endowed with reasoning capacity and free will. It is a clear exposition of what we can do within our means (as ordinary folks, busy with everyday life activities) to bring about a transformation towards the positive. Further work in this area led us to realize that the number of farms that were strictly following Rudolf Steiner’s guidelines could not provide the whole spectrum of food that was needed. Another important step was then taken: to establish a classification system that would allow us to evaluate farms that-- while not following strictly, or all of, Rudolf Steiner’s recommendations; or having introduced variations that could mean enhancement; or using alternative approaches, but maintaining the same principles--were still delivering quality produce, preserving the environment, and healing the soil. The result of this was Spiritual Farms. Farm classification gives more detailed information about the procedures used to classify the farms. |
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