Subtle Agroecologies Farming With the Hidden Half of Nature

This book is about the invisible or subtle nature of food and farming, and also about the nature of existence. Everything that we know (and do not know) about the physical world has a subtle counterpart which has been scarcely considered in modernist farming practice and research. If you think this book isn’t for you, if it appears more important to attend to the pressing physical challenges the world is facing before having the luxury of turning to such subtleties, then think again. For it could be precisely this worldview – the one prioritises the physical-material dimension of reality - that helped get us into this situation in the first place. Perhaps we need a different worldview to get us out? This book makes a foundational contribution to the discipline of Subtle Agroecologies, a nexus of indigenous epistemologies, multidisciplinary advances in wave-based and ethereal studies, and the science of sustainable agriculture. Not a farming system in itself, Subtle Agroecologies superimposes a non-material dimension upon existing, materially-based agroecological farming systems. Bringing together 43 authors from 12 countries and five continents, from the natural and social sciences as well as the arts and humanities, this multi-contributed book introduces the discipline, explaining its relevance and potential contribution to the field of Agroecology. Research into Subtle Agroecologies may be described as the systematic study of the nature of the invisible world as it relates to the practice of agriculture, and to do this through adapting and innovating with research methods, in particular with those of a more embodied nature, with the overall purpose of bringing and maintaining balance and harmony. Such research is an open-minded inquiry, its grounding being the lived experiences of humans working on, and with, the land over several thousand years to the present. By reclaiming and reinterpreting the perennial relationship between humans and nature, the implications would revolutionise agriculture, heralding a new wave of more sustainable farming techniques, changing our whole relationship with nature to one of real collaboration rather than control, and ultimately transforming ourselves.

Section 1: Transformative Epistemological, Philosophical and Theoretical Frameworks Re-enchanting Agriculture: Farming With the Hidden Half of Nature Julia Wright From the Mainstreaming of Western Science to the Co-evolution of Different Sciences: Addressing Cognitive Injustice Bertus Haverkort Conversations With Nature Spirits: the Political Ecology of Power and Progress in Rural Zimbabwe Georgina McAllister and Zeddy Chikukwa The Forgotten Ground: Recollecting the Primordial Harmony Joseph Milne Humans are Humus: Using Eco-psychology to Highlight the Language of Dualism and the Promise of the Non-dual Travis Cox A New Science From a Historical Figure: Goethe as Holistic Scientist Isis Brook From Quantum Biology Toward Quantum Consciousness Jack Tuszynski Healing our Relationship with Gaia Through a New Thrivability Paradigm Anneloes Smitsman and Jude Currivan Section 2: The Intersection of Wave-Based Science and Agriculture Electromagnetic Fields Mitigate Adverse Effects of Environmental Stresses in Plants Angel De Souza-Torres Synthesis of In-Situ Experimental Projects and the Practical Uses of the Method of Epigenetic Regulation of Protein Synthesis Developed by J. Sternheimer, in the Agricultural Field: Case studies of Grapevine (fungi: Esca and Mildew), Endive (bacterium: Erwinia) and Courgette (viruses: WMV2, ZYMV) Victor Prévost, Michel Duhamel, Pedro Ferrandiz and Joël Sternheimer Astronomical Rhythms in Biodynamic Agriculture: A Brazilian Case Study on the Yield and Quality of Daucus carota l. under Biodynamic Management Related to Lunar Rhythms Pedro Jovchelevich Electromagnetic Parameters Related to Plants and Their Microbiomes Ed Moerman Homeopathy Applied to Agriculture: Theoretical and Practical Considerations with Examples from Brazil Rovier Verdi, Leo Faedo and Pedro Boff Effect of Low Power Laser Biotechnology Pretreatment on Shooting and Initial Growth of Mulberry and Sugarcane Under Flood Stress Sergio Rodríguez Rodríguez, Eduardo Ortega, Juan José Silva Pupo, Alexander Álvarez Fonseca, Medardo Ulloa Enríquez and Luis Arias Basulto Fluorescence-Excitation-Spectroscopy (FES) to Evaluate the Farming System’s Impact on Food Quality Jenifer Wohlers, Peter Stolz, Gudrun Mende and Jürgen Strube Picturing Vitality, the Crystallisation Fingerprint Method Paul Doesburg Section 3: The Search for More Embodied Methodologies Calibrating the Body: Embodied Research Strategies for Attuning to Subtle Information Eline Kieft The Art of Food Rituals as a Practice in Sympoiethics Miche Fabre Lewin and Flora Gathorne-Hardy The Systemic Constellations Method Applied to Agriculture Melissa Roussopoulos Engaging in the Goethean Method: An Approach for Understanding the Farm? Isis Brook Intuitive Farming: Heart-based Decisions for Harmony in Agricultural Ecosystems Saskia von Diest An Investigation of Sustainable Yogic Agriculture as a Mind-Matter Farming Approach Janus Bojesen Jensen Section 4: Voices From the Field The Etheric Realms as a Foundation for Exploring the Use of Radionics With the Biodynamic Preparations Hugh Lovel The Subtle Life of the Bee and its Importance for Humanity Sabrina Menestrina An Exploration of the Dynamic Role of Water in a Holistic Agriculture Simon Charter Land Whispering: Practical Applications of Consciousness and Subtle Energy Awareness in Agriculture - notes and reflections from practice in the field Patrick MacManaway Rediscovering Ancient Pathways for Regenerative Agriculture Charles Massy Experiencing the Metaphysics of Agriculture Michael J. Roads

Julia Wright has a background in international research and development, seeking to integrate ecological (organic and permaculture) thinking into conventional agricultural systems and organisations, including in humanitarian settings. After studying at Trinity St Davids (University of Wales), Silsoe College (Cranfield University) and Wye College (London University), she worked for some years in South America before undertaking a PhD at Wageningen University on the coping strategies of the Cuban farming sector during the country's period of food and fuel shortages in the 1990s, resulting in the Earthscan publication Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in an Era of Oil Scarcity: Lessons from Cuba (2009). Returning to the UK in 2003 to lead the International Programme of the organic NGO Garden Organic (formerly the Henry Doubleday Research Association), in 2011 she was involved in establishing the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University, where she has since been developing a research programme on the discipline of Subtle Agroecologies.