Cover Story: Science Versus Beliefs
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Unproven biodynamics, animal communications and distance healing have a place on the farm
For a small number of advocates, these alternative practices are providing solutions where others have failed. But to the debunking experts, they are just scientific nonsense
By MARY BAXTER
Bill Redelmeier first encountered biodynamics at the 85-acre Benziger Family Winery in Sonoma County, Calif. He still remembers the line Chris Benziger, one of the vineyard's owners, opened the tour with: "What we're going to talk about sounds like California woo-woo – but it works."
Redelmeier, and his wife, Marilyn, were researching California vineyards for ideas to apply to their own winery, Southbrook Vineyards, which they had founded in 1991 as a sideline to the family's Richmond Hill market garden and farm-gate operation. The Redelmeiers wanted a product with a stronger future.
Wine grapes "are the only crop in Ontario where we can compete year-round using Ontario produce," says Bill. In 2005, the couple bought 150 acres in Ontario's version of Sonoma County, the Region of Niagara. Three years later, Southbrook became the province's first winery to obtain biodynamic certification.
The Redelmeiers are not alone in their decision to invest in alternative practices to boost their farm business. From hog and dairy operators to greenhouse growers, members of the agricultural community are putting their money into alternatives such as radionics, EMF (electric and magnetic field) balancers and animal communicators. They do so even though there is little, if any, scientific evidence that proves these to be better solutions than accepted practices. What's convincing them to put hard-earned dollars into unproven alternatives?
Debunking experts, such as Joe Schwarcz and Linda Chalker-Scott, credit growing skepticism in society at large about science and a related craving for absolute solutions. Schwarcz is the director of Montreal-based McGill University's Office for Science and Society, the first university department in the world to be dedicated to demystifying science for both its students and the public at large. He says science is complex and confusing for the layman and its results often disappoint. "You never have a complete solution that doesn't introduce something else," he explains. "Also, you can't always predict what will happen."
Freon, used in the refrigeration process, is a prime example. While its introduction revolutionized our ability to refrigerate food safely. We learned of its disastrous effect on the earth's ozone layer years later. Scandals within the scientific community have also taken their toll on credibility, with "big pharma" being regarded as "some kind of mafia."
He believes the ability to share information over the Internet has fueled the growth of conspiracy theories. Journalism fosters them, too, because of its emphasis on presenting different sides of the issue but failing to indicate which perspective carries more scientific weight: "You have some of these very, very vocal quacks who get a lot of attention," he says.
LEED certified winery
Chalker-Scott is an extension horticulturist and associate professor with the Puyallup Research and Extension Center at Washington State University. She writes a regular column that explores horticultural myths in the U.S.-based MasterGardener magazine. She says humans are hard-wired to enjoy and search for patterns and try "to make sense out of things."
Redelmeier says the appeal for him of biodynamics was a fuller, more satisfying agricultural package than organic methods offered. Redelmeier is a committed environmentalist. His winery, designed by a leading Canadian architect, is the first in the country to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental design) gold certification.
He has introduced a wetland system to treat wastewater and sewage. "Nothing leaves the property that isn't fit to drink," he says.
Biodynamics doesn't simply substitute buying one form of product for buying another; it involves rethinking agricultural production: "What biodynamics is all about is to try and raise the plant to be healthy enough that you don't need to spray," he says. "It's all about healthier plants."
A key difference from organic production is that biodynamics includes a metaphysical belief system.
It's also about establishing a market niche. In recent years, biodynamic wines have earned a reputation for quality and have consequently managed to command a higher than average price in international wine circles. Redelmeier charges $21.95 for a 750 millilitre bottle of his 2008 biodynamic-certified Triomphe Merlot. That's not the highest price on his wine list, but it's a far cry from the $9 which he estimates to be the average cost of wine bought at the LCBO.
Redelmeier is convinced that producing quality can generate the price Ontario's grape growers need to obtain to achieve sustainability in an increasingly competitive industry. With its emphasis on self-sufficiency, he adds, biodynamics also provides an edge in the market for locally grown products.
Biodynamic agriculture stems from the work of the early 20th century Austrian philosopher, Rudolf Steiner, perhaps best known as the founder of the Waldorf School. Its goal is to create a "closed" farm system, generating all necessary inputs from the farm.
The approach also embraces the idea that synergistic cosmic forces influence agricultural production. This mystical aspect is embodied in the use of nine preparations, some of which are intended to improve the soil and plants' physical aspect and others to vitalize their essence. To achieve certification a producer must use the nine preparations.
Redelmeier is a big fan of the closed farm concept and biodynamics' emphasis on biodiversity. Last year, he acquired 24 sheep to help keep the lower part of his grape vines clear of leaves and to add fertilizer. He is beginning to rely on wild ferments for his wine production, so he doesn't have to bring in commercial yeast.
But there are drawbacks. Yields are lower – in organic and biodynamic systems, yield is reduced to control outbreaks of disease and rot – but quality more than makes up for lack of quantity, he says.
As in organic production, labour costs are higher than conventional. They are also about 25 per cent more than organic. The expense has to do with a rigorous spring pruning schedule and a mid-summer green harvest of grapes to reduce the yield size.
"If you buy into biodynamics, you're also willing to make the sacrifices of lower yields and doing things when they need to be done – and doing things right as opposed to doing things the easy way," Redelmeier says.
Young, urban adults interested
Interest in biodynamics is growing slowly in Ontario, say its proponents. Seminars held during the annual Guelph Organic Conference are always crowded. Johann Kleinsasser, who has used biodynamics since the 1990s and applies them to his community supported agriculture (CSA) operation near Rockwood, says younger adults from urban backgrounds show the most interest.
Ulrich Hack, chair of Demeter Canada, biodynamics' certifying organization in this country, says there are 18 certified farms in Ontario.
On average, he will field four or five requests for certification annually but "not all follow through." Some certified farms grow vegetables and sell direct to the consumer. Two are large dairy farms (Ontario's raw milk crusader Michael Schmidt owns one) and there are a few, like Hacks's 1,000-acre operation near Kincardine, that produce grain.
Cory Eichman has farmed using biodynamics since the 1990s and operates an 80-acre CSA farm near Durham with his wife, Tanya Coulter. He first heard about the practice after having worked a summer landscaping and gardening. He was drawn to the work "but also found it tedious." Biodynamics brought "the day-to-day to a wider context," he says.
Eichman admits that to hear about biodynamic practices out of the blue makes it seem like "witchcraft." But working on the farm, "it doesn't seem so strange."
He likens the preparations to homeopathic remedies and refers to studies, some conducted by the Wisconsin-based Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and others in Europe, that have found the applications to be of benefit to the soil and plant.
Chalker-Scott says many of these studies are flawed. She explains that biodynamic practices use techniques that might be common to either conventional or organic agriculture, such as polyculture, no-till and composting: "To really test whether biodynamics has an effect, what you need to do is test organic methodology against organic plus biodynamic." Studies that have taken this approach haven't found significant differences between the two approaches, she says.
However, as a belief system that encourages people to spend time on their farms thinking about how things work, biodynamics has value and offers a way to help people to understand ecological principles, Chalker-Scott says. "Any philosophy that espouses that, I think, is valuable. When it becomes harmful is when it tries to stray into pseudo-science."
Other concepts, such as radionics, are more problematic. Three years ago, Jo and Pauline Slegers decided to try EMF balancers and radionics to boost production and reduce their reliance on inputs. They operate organic greenhouses near Strathroy and grow a range of vegetable greens that they sell in their on-farm store and in London and the Toronto. They are also beginning to grow spelt.
Jo Slegers contacted Peter Webb, a former hog farmer who lives outside Ottawa. Through his company, Laurentia, Webb sells a product called EMF balancers. He claims they balance out all of the electromagnetic fields coming into and on the property and ease the negative effects of EMF pollution by diverting "geomagnetic" lines. Webb says he also uses the balancer for radionics communications.
Distance healing
Radionics has its roots in the early 1900s and was invented by Albert Abrams, an American medical doctor. Distance healing is the idea behind the concept, with some sort of token of the subject used by the healer to focus a "broadcast" of information.
Webb says the broadcast is conveyed through frequencies that use geomagnetic lines, also known as Ley lines or Hartmann lines. They are like "streams of energy that flow through properties; they're all over the earth." He says they're best detected with dowsing rods, but sometimes an FM radio can be used: "it'll go fuzzy when you walk across those lines."
Abrams was never able to prove his theories with accredited scientific studies and Webb is not sure if radionics has ever been proven scientifically. He knows of one study by a Dr. Andrew Michrowski that addresses geomagnetic lines. (Internet searches indicate Michrowski received a doctorate in architecture from the Polytechnic di Milano in Milan, Italy and is president of the Ottawa-based Planetary Association for Clean Energy). Webb says, however, that he has "anecdotal proof" that his approach works. "My belief is it depends on the operator."
He says results are consistent, "if the operator is really good." He does show farmers what he claims are quantified effects of the process. These include laboratory analysis of soil samples of fields under wheat in Suffolk, England and milk samples from the same area.
He says he uses radionics to broadcast information to achieve effects such as generating more sugar content in plants; creating heavier, more nutrient dense crops, and making them more resistant to disease; reducing pest pressure; and, through these improvements, increasing milk production in dairy cattle.
"Really all it does is enhance or help the animal (or plant) to absorb those nutrients in their food supply more efficiently," he says.
The Laurentia website, http://www.laurentia.ca/, says the clay in the devices "draws in the magnetic fields and sends them out in a balanced state," which relieves stresses from the fields. Claims made about the benefits of the process range from better sleeps and improved energy levels for people to improved milk production in dairy cows, including higher recordings of butter fat and protein content.
The device's exterior is PVC tubing and its contents include a mixture of minerals, amino acids, vitamins and clay. The clay, from Wyoming, is used because of "unusual magnetism," Webb explains in a video on his website. The whole thing stands about nine inches high. A package of eight costs about $1,500 and Webb says they are self-energizing and self-cleaning. There is no extra charge for setting them up, the broadcasts or the product monitoring, which he conducts.
During an interview in June of last year Webb estimated he was supplying about five farms a week with balancers, primarily in eastern Ontario. Most were sold to solve transient voltage problems. He says he has shipped devices to Manitoba, Britain, Europe, the United States and Australia. Farmers in Wisconsin, where he visited several farms last summer, seem particularly interested. Webb says he's not sure about total volume. He estimates homeowners have purchased several thousand units and another 500-1,000 have gone to farms.
Jo Slegers doesn't lose any sleep about the lack of scientific evidence to back Webb's product. "I would rather be unscientific," he says. "Once science gets a hold of it, . . . they can start to control it." Then, it becomes "someone else's commodity." He has seven units altogether, one for each of the three greenhouses and the remainder dispersed in farm buildings to promote a more "positive atmosphere" throughout the farm property.
Slegers feels the approach has been successful. Plants appear healthier than before and are doing better in winter, even under low light conditions. He no longer uses repellents or insecticidal soap. "I think there's something the pests don't desire anymore," he says.
Despite his interest, he's not yet ready to consider himself a full believer. Ask him in another two years if he thinks the approach really works, he says. If he concludes it doesn't, he's not too concerned: it's not hurting anything in the meantime, and it hasn't been all that expensive to try.
Last resort solution
Perry and Sandy Wagler turned to Webb and another alternative practice, called animal communication, as a last resort.
For the past five years the Waglers, who own a 60-cow dairy near Shakespeare, have struggled with health issues – higher than normal mortality rates; problems with weight and dehydration, milk production and reproduction. Wagler figured stray voltage might be the culprit.
He called Hydro One, who came in numerous times to do testing. "They told me that I was within the legal limits and washed their hands clean of anything." He paid $3,000 to install a Ronk Blocker, a pole-top device that reduces off-site contributions to stray voltage.
When problems persisted, he called in Lorne Lantz, a Wellesley-based electronics technician who specializes in stray voltage issues. Lantz tested the barn and made adjustments. When that didn't work Lantz suggested Wagler contact Webb.
Two years ago, Webb installed about eight of the balancers on Wagler's farm. Wagler says his animals' health improved, but they remained underweight.
So last summer, he contacted Beata Pillach, a Waterloo-based animal communicator, to see if she could help.
Pillach says she can talk telepathically to animals. She does this in person or over the telephone with the aid of a photograph of the animal as well as using questions prepared in advance by the animal's owner.
She says the service she provides is not intended to displace veterinary care and can be taught. Asked if she is aware of any scientific evidence to back her claims, she refers to work done to prove animal consciousness.
During the three-hour session at his farm, Pillach told Wagler the cows were dehydrated and did not want to drink out of their water troughs because they were contaminated with electromagnetic pollution. ‘"She said: ‘The cows are telling me they'd stand in a line to go to a fresh waterbowl,'" Wagler recalls.
Wagler introduced the fresh water bowl, but problems persisted. In November, he had to put one cow down because of poor health. Another continues to struggle at the time of this publication. He attributes the recent troubles to a traffic accident earlier in the fall, which snapped a hydro pole and sent live current into the ground near his property.
He decided to call in Webb, Lantz and Pillach. Webb invited Better Farming along. The group congregated on the farm on a rainy morning in late November, while Lantz measured earth currents in an adjacent field using wire and ground rods.
Lantz believes that Wagler's position on the electrical grid, his proximity to an electrical substation and the farm's natural terrain (sandy soil sits on top of a large groundwater resource that is close to the surface and linked to springs) help concentrate current in the ground. With the problem being so widespread it is nearly impossible to keep it all out of the barn, he says.
By early afternoon, they had added four more EMF balancers, bringing the number of devices to "close to 20," Webb says. That's about eight more than he usually applies for stray voltage. He blames the amount of electrical and magnetic pollution coming from the tracks.
Five days after the session, Wagler says he's satisfied with the adjustments but anticipates having to call in the team for more adjustments if the water table fluctuates. So far, he's spent "easily $30,000" addressing the problem through both conventional and alternative means. "That's not even close to my losses."
He says others may think him "off the wall" for the measures he's used, but he doesn't care. "With cows looking like that and dying within two months of going into the barn, you look at everything."
Claims challenged
From a science perspective, however, questions linger about whether every angle was considered and the effectiveness of Webb's product.
Trevor DeVries, an assistant professor with the University of Guelph's department of animal and poultry science, studies how management and nutrition affect the behaviour of dairy cows and how this information can be used to affect cow health, efficiency and welfare.
He refers to two studies published by McGill University researchers that show cows respond with increased production levels when exposed to low-level electromagnetic fields such as those found below high tension lines. One study indicates that the exposures to low-frequency fields increases production of IGF-1, a polypeptide protein hormone, which in turn has been associated with increased milk yield in cattle. The studies conflict with Webb's inference that the fields decrease milk production in cattle.
The Ottawa Skeptics, an organization that promotes the use of the scientific method, critical thinking and rational thought, has challenged Webb's claims about the balancers.
Barry Green, a member of the group, attended a presentation by Webb and wrote about it in an October 2008 article published on the Skeptic's website: http://www.ottawaskeptics.org/topics/alternative-medicine/148-it-is-unbelievable-what-a-tub-of-soil-can-do . Green writes that Webb claimed the device operates when standing upright and ceases operation when on its side. Jon Abrams, the Skeptics' president, who attended the event with Green turned the device upside down, while Steve Priebe, Webb's distributor in the Ottawa area, used dowsing rods to demonstrate the difference between when the unit was off and on. When the Skeptics informed presenters, "no one batted an eye," Green writes. Priebe told them that the balancers would work a bit when they are upside down.
Webb alleges the Skeptics are essentially a division of Health Canada.
The members who attended his demonstration "take exception to anything that enhances health; they just don't like it." He says they're out "to destroy anything that's out of the range of a drug or medication, really."
Webb confirms that balancers must stand upright to work, but says the Skeptics should have contacted him directly rather than Priebe. Priebe, "has no knowledge of how they work."
Green, who works in the Canadian military, says the Skeptics are not affiliated with Health Canada. The amateur group is mostly a virtual community of volunteers; many work in the federal government, "but that's just because Ottawa is a government town," he says. The group has 400 registrants on its website; 10-20 attend monthly meetings held at Carleton University. The group is not affiliated with the university.
Green says Ottawa Skeptics tries to encourage the public to be critical thinkers, ask questions and demand scientific evidence and support for claims. It is concerned about those in the alternative medicine community who make claims without scientific evidence and others buying into them. "There's always a danger that people will try to follow alternative medical treatments instead of medical treatments and there's a health danger in that." There is no scientific support for claims made about electric and magnetic fields causing health problems, he adds. "There are a lot of pseudo-scientific topics in the farming community, related to wind farms and electromagnetic pollution."
Schwarcz calls EMF balancers, radionics, the ability to communicate telepathically with animals and biodynamics "nonsense." He points out that practicing skepticism does not mean having a closed mind but rather being willing to go by the evidence. Proponents of "quackery" don't seek controlled trials because they don't need to. "They've got their choir to sing to who are already believers."
Personal testimonials "are what this whole quack industry is built upon," he says. "Anecdotal evidence in the scientific world doesn't mean much. Yes, they can trigger interest, but you have to explore it scientifically. You don't base it all on anecdote."
Webb says he's willing to undergo controlled testing of his product anytime. "We have so much, we'll call it anecdotal proof that it's working." There are two sides to every story, he adds. How do you know which is telling the truth?
Responds Schwarcz: If you have a puzzle that needs to be solved and you're a betting man on which way to go, "science is the best bet."
But making that choice is becoming a hard sell. To make the point, he tells a story about visiting an ear-candling booth at an alternative health fair in Montreal. Proponents of ear candling claim it draws wax and debris from the ear canal. He describes lighting one of the candles and then cutting it in half to show that the material appearing in the hollow came from the candle itself.
Of the 12 people lined up to visit the booth, only one left. BF
SIDEBARS:
Biodynamics: the farm as living organism
Rudolf Steiner first proposed the idea of biodynamics in lectures delivered in 1924 in Austria. According to Demeter's U.S. website, the approach involves accepting the farm as a living organism, such as a wilderness forest, where all of the components to achieve biological self-sufficiency are present. Demeter has been the biodynamics certifying agent since 1928.
Ulrich Hack, chair of Demeter Canada, says those applying for certification do not have to be entirely self-sufficient, but they do have to show they are working towards that goal.
The approach also embraces the idea that synergistic cosmic forces influence agricultural production and uses nine preparations to "heal" the soil and foster vitality in both soil and plants. In the fall, biodynamics practitioners bury a cow horn filled with cow manure. They retrieve the contents in spring and use it as the basis for a soil application. In spring, powdered quartz is added to a horn and buried to make a treatment to apply to crops so as to prevent fungal disease later in the season. There are also recipes to apply to compost that involve herbs such as chamomile, yarrow, stinging nettle and oak bark.
Cory Eichman has been involved in biodynamic farming since the 1990s, first as an apprentice and subsequently on the 80-acre CSA farm near Durham that he shares with his wife, Tanya Coulter.
The practice comes with its challenges. Achieving a closed system is difficult, Eichman says, noting that he relies on off-farm inputs such as fuel and some hay. Saving seeds can be tough, especially when planting 70 different crops.
Finding labour is another challenge. He does the work with two to three apprentices each year and that's not enough to keep up with weeding the five acres of market garden used to supply about 70 families in summer months and 35 over the winter. So, this year, he's asking those who decide to buy shares of the crop to contribute half a day of work during the season.
Eichman says that, although he's not making money "hands over fists," he is making a profit. His accountant tells him that, in farming, that's rare without some form of government support. Although his operation does accept donations, he says that, so far, it has not obtained government support. BF
Sorting the wheat from the chaff
When it comes to alternative practices, how do you weed out the credible from the questionable?
Ask the people promoting the product, service or idea if they've used it and if they are making money at it, says Joseph Schwarcz, director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society.
Philosophy is not enough."If they can come up with the proof,in a proper, controlled trial, our mind is open enough to think let's investigate what could be here because it's always possible that there is some explanation that we just don't think about," Schwarcz says.
He uses radio transmission as an example, noting that initially engineers doubted the waves could cross the ocean because of the earth's curvature. But they didn't know at the time that radio waves could bounce off the atmosphere. "Nobody thought of that."
Making the claim that it cannot be measured by typical science methods is "a nice out for the quacks." Of course, science doesn't have all the answers, nor does it claim to. But when it comes to things like energies that cannot be measured by science, the burden of proof "is on the claimant. It's not on science to prove that something doesn't exist; we cannot do that."
Schwarcz's office publishes several fact sheets about scientific discoveries and issues that can be found on its website at http://oss.mcgill.ca . Issues tackled range from food safety and cloning to biotechnology in Africa.
Linda Chalker-Scott, an extension horticulturist and associate professor with the Puyallup Research and Extension Center at Washington State University, says she would never tell someone not to try something "as long as it wasn't harmful." If it doesn't hurt anybody and the user swears by it, why not?
But if a major purchase is being considered, she recommends farmers either talk to an extension agent or professor, or research websites on the Internet that end in .edu . BF