SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: THE
DISTRIBUTION OF BIODYNAMICS AND
ORGANICS IN AUSTRALIA

John Paull, B Hennig

► To cite this version:

John Paull, B Hennig. SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: THE DISTRIBUTION OF BIODYNAMICS AND ORGANICS IN AUSTRALIA. Proceedings of the 13th Seminar on Science and Technology, 2020, pp.173-176. hal-03018985

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# SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: THE DISTRIBUTION OF BIODYNAMICS AND ORGANICS IN AUSTRALIA

J. Paull*<fnref n="1" /> and B. Hennig<fnref n="2" />

j.paull@utas.edu.au

***Abstract:*** Australia is a global leader in sustainable agriculture. Australia accounts for 20% of the world's certified biodynamic agriculture hectares (viz. 49,797 hectares; 55 countries account for a global total of 251,842 certified biodynamic hectares). Australia accounts for 50% of the world's certified organic agriculture hectares (viz. 35,645,037 hectares; 186 countries account for a global total of 71,514,583 certified organic hectares). This paper presents a map of the geographic distribution of biodynamic agriculture in Australia, which is the first accounting and analysis of biodynamics data in Australia. The biodynamic distribution across the states and territories of Australia is compared to the distribution of organic agriculture. Biodynamic agriculture is the ‘original’ organic agriculture and sustainable agriculture, and it dates from 1924. Organic agriculture has grown out of the biodynamics movement and the term ‘organic farming’ dates from 1940. World maps of the global distribution of organics and biodynamics reveal Australia’s leadership in sustainable agriculture.

***Keywords:*** organic agriculture, biodynamic farming, maps, cartograms, geographic distribution.

## 1. INTRODUCTION

Australia is a global leader in sustainable agriculture. The country has been an early adopter of various sustainable farming practices over the past century [1]. Australia accounts for 20% of global certified biodynamic hectares (viz. 49,797 hectares; 55 countries account for a global total of 251,842 certified biodynamic hectares) [2]. Australia accounts for 50% of global certified organic hectares (viz. 35,645,037 hectares; 186 countries account for a global total of 71,514,583 certified organic hectares) [3].

The foundations of biodynamic agriculture were laid in 1924 by the Austrian New Age philosopher, Dr Rudolf Steiner, in his Agriculture Course which he presented to a multi-national group of farmers and others, at Koberwitz (now Kobierzyce, Poland) [4, 5]. The practices were introduced to Australia in 1928 by an Italian immigrant, Ernesto Genoni [6]. In 1940, a British biodynamic farmer, Lord Northbourne, introduced the term ‘organic farming’ and published his manifesto of organic agriculture, *Look to the Land* [7, 8]. Northbourne’s ideas were promoted in Australia, beginning in 1944, by the world’s first organics advocacy group, the Australian Organic Farming and Gardening Society [9].

World maps of biodynamics and organics have recently been published revealing the global distribution of these two modes of sustainable agriculture (Figs 1 & 2) [2, 10]. These maps are equal area cartograms (aka density-equalising cartograms). Equal areas of the cartograms represent equal areas of biodynamics and organics respectively.

The present paper presents the first map of the geographic distribution of biodynamic hectares across the states and territories of Australia (Fig.3). The distribution of biodynamics is compared to the distribution of organic hectares across the states and territories of Australia (Fig.4).

<footnote n="1">¹ University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland</footnote>
## 2. METHODOLOGY

The data for certified biodynamic agriculture has not previously been collated for Australia. For various historical reasons the biodynamics data for Australia is not overseen nor collected by Demeter International [2, 11]. For the present study, the biodynamics data was supplied by Australian certifiers. Of the various organics certifiers in Australia, only three certify to biodynamic standards. The data for the biodynamics map were supplied by: Australian Certified Organic (ACO); Australian Demeter Bio-Dynamic; and the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA).

The BD distribution map (Fig.3) is produced by evacuating the territorial-areas of the states and territories of Australia, and repopulating the regions with the respective biodynamic areas (conserving the original total area), using the principles of the Worldmapper algorithm to produce a density-equalising map [12]. For the resulting cartogram, equal areas of the cartogram represent equal areas of biodynamic agriculture (that is, the density of biodynamics is uniform across the map).

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 1.** The global distribution of certified biodynamic agriculture hectares [source: 2].</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 2.** The global distribution of certified organic agriculture hectares [10].</figcaption></figure>
### 3. RESULTS & DISCUSSION

The map of biodynamic agriculture in Australia appears as Figure 3. This compares to the map of organics in Australia (Fig.4). The biodynamics and organics data are presented in Table 1.

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 3.** Map of Australia's certified biodynamic hectares (equal area cartogram).</figcaption></figure>

<table><caption>**Table 1.** The distribution of certified biodynamic and organic agriculture hectares across the states and territories of Australia.</caption><thead><tr><td>State/Territory</td><td>Biodynamic (hectares)</td><td>Organic (hectares)</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Australian Capital Territory (ACT)</td><td>0</td><td>2766</td></tr><tr><td>New South Wales (NSW)</td><td>15,209</td><td>3,601,789</td></tr><tr><td>Northern Territory (NT)</td><td>0</td><td>2,153,079</td></tr><tr><td>Queensland (QLD)</td><td>3081</td><td>10,667,052</td></tr><tr><td>South Australia (SA)</td><td>4164</td><td>14,102,866</td></tr><tr><td>Tasmania (TAS)</td><td>61</td><td>4,769</td></tr><tr><td>Victoria (VIC)</td><td>17,087</td><td>413,925</td></tr><tr><td>Western Australia (WA)</td><td>10,195</td><td>4,698,791</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>49,797</td><td>35,645,037</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 4. CONCLUSION

The maps confirm Australia as a world leader in sustainable agriculture. Australia rates second in the world for biodynamics (accounting for 20% of the world's certified biodynamic hectares), and first in the world for organics (accounting for 50% of the world's certified organic hectares). The maps of Australia's biodynamics and organics reveal the uneven distribution across the state and territories, with two states (VIC & NSW) accounting for 65% of biodynamics hectares, and with a different two states (QLD & SA) accounting for 69% of organic hectares.

### ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The kind assistance of Australian Certified Organic (ACO), Australian Demeter Bio-Dynamic, and the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA) for supplying certification data is acknowledged.
<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 4.** Map of Australia's certified organic hectares (equal area cartogram) [image source: 10].</figcaption></figure>

## REFERENCES

[1] Paull, J., A history of the organic agriculture movement in Australia, in Organics in the Global Food Chain, B. Mascitelli and A. Lobo, Editors. 2013, Connor Court Publishing: Ballarat. p. 37-60.

[2] Paull, J. and B. Hennig, A World Map of Biodynamic Agriculture. Agricultural and Biological Sciences journal, 2020. 6(2): p. 114-119.

[3] Paull, J., Organic Agriculture in Australia: Attaining the global majority (51%). Journal of Environment Protection and Sustainable Development, 2019. 5(2): p. 70-74.

[4] Steiner, R., Landwirtschaftlicher Kursus gehalten zu Koberwitz 7. bis 16. Juni 1924. 1924, Dornach: Herausgegeben von der naturwissenschaftlichen Sektion am Goetheanum.

[5] Paull, J., The Koberwitzers: Those who attended Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course at Koberwitz in 1924, World's foundational organic agriculture course. International Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2020. 6(2): p. 47-54.

[6] Paull, J., Ernesto Genoni: Australia's pioneer of biodynamic agriculture. Journal of Organics, 2014. 1(1): p. 57-81.

[7] Northbourne, Lord, Look to the Land. 1940, London: Dent.

[8] Paull, J., Lord Northbourne, the man who invented organic farming, a biography. Journal of Organic Systems, 2014. 9(1): p. 31-53.

[9] Paull, J., The lost history of organic farming in Australia. Journal of Organic Systems, 2008. 3(2): p. 2-17.

[10] Paull, J. and B. Hennig, New world map of organic agriculture: Australia is 51%. Acres Australia, 2019. 101: p. 35-36.

[11] Demeter, Certification - Statistics: June 2015. 2016, Darmstadt, Germany: Demeter International.

[12] Gastner, M.T. and M.E.J. Newman, Diffusion-based method for producing density-equalizing maps. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 2004. 101(20): p. 7499-7504.
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