Biodynamic agriculture research progressand priorities

Biodynamic (BD) agriculture became the subject of research efforts during the past decades, whereas a part of the scientificcommunity looks at the BD method with skepticism and marks it as dogmatic. Nevertheless, as explored in this review, afair share of the available peer-reviewed research results of controlled field experiments as well as case studies show effectsof BD preparations on yield, soil quality and biodiversity. Moreover, BD preparations express a positive environmentalimpact in terms of energy use and efficiency. However, the underlying natural science mechanistic principle of BDpreparations is still under investigation. In addition, quality determination methods, based on holistic approaches, areincreasingly being investigated and recognized. BD farming strives, as manifested in several publications, to positivelyimpact cultural landscape design as well. Summarized data showed that further research is needed and thus encouraged inthe field of food quality comparison/determination, food safety, environmental performance (e.g., footprints), and on theeffects of BD farming practices on farm animals