The Biodynamic Association (formerly the Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association, then the North American Biodynamic Association) is a United States-based company that promotes Biodynamic agriculture system through educational and research programs and has headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Biodynamic agriculture was inaugurated in 1924 by Austrian scientist Rudolf Steiner.[1] It is the oldest, non-chemical agricultural movement and pre-dates organic agriculture by some twenty years. Beginning in 1926, American farmers and gardeners joined the effort to test and promulgate Steiner's agricultural ideas.[2] By 1938 there were 39 Americans who had joined this international effort, with some reading Steiner's work in the English translation and others in the German original.[3]
The Association was formed in 1938 in New York state with the support of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, a disciple of Rudolf Steiner, when he immigrated to the U.S.[4] It is organized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
The Association is a non-profit, membership organization and is open to the public. It has an educational focus and conducts conferences, workshops and seminars; publishes books and a quarterly journal, Biodynamics; and supports regional, grass-roots membership groups. It provides several booklets with specific instructions on biodynamic methods, including the biodynamic preparations and composting.[5]