STROUD (NNA) - Patrick Holden, the UK’s leading spokesman on organic food and farming, will be giving the keynote address at the autumn conference of the Biodynamic Association next month.

Holden was director of the Soil Association until retiring last year. The Soil Association is the UK’s leading organic organisation and Soil Association Certification is the UK's largest organic certification body, responsible for certifying over 70% of all organic products sold in the country. 

As patron of the Biodynamic Association, Patrick Holden will be speaking about “The future of food and sustainable agriculture in the 21st century” and will outline the strategy being employed by the new Sustainable Food Trust including how converting to biodynamics will help ensure a secure and sustainable food supply, the Biodynamic Association said in a press release.

“Biodynamic farming is a higher and finer dimension of organic farming, particularly as it includes the human being and focuses on raising the level of vitality in the crops and the livestock”, Holden told “Star and Furrow”, the Association’s magazine, in the summer.

On the same day as Holden’s address, the award winning film “Queen of the Sun” will hold its UK premier. This “inspiring and beautiful film” outlines the crisis that bees are experiencing with modern agricultural methods and shows how a more sustainable biodynamic approach can help them, the press release said.

The Biodynamic Association conference, entitled “The future of agriculture - a biodynamic approach”, runs from the 10–13 November at Emerson College. Participants will have an “excellent chance to gain a deeper understanding of the principles that lie behind this pioneering approach to ecological agriculture that has gained world wide recognition since its inception in 1924,” the Association said.

As well as lectures and workshops, participants will have the opportunity to visit the nearby Demeter certified Tablehurst biodynamic farm, that uses a low till method to maintain its soils. It also produces excellent award winning meats and pies.

Furthermore, biodynamic wine has received a lot of publicity over the last years and is gaining popularity amongst Europe’s top vineyards. Sedlescombe Vineyard will be offering a tasting of their Demeter certified biodynamic wines – the first in the UK – on the following day.

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Item: 111010-01EN Date: 10 October 2011

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