Mon, 29 Sep 2008

A taste of quality with Biodynamic Food Fortnight

LONDON (NNA) – Biodynamics is raising its public profile once again this year with the Biodynamic Food Fortnight starting at the end of this week.

Special events - including farm events, opportunities to taste biodynamic food at selected restaurants and cafés, and special promotions by stores – have been organised throughout the country from 3 to 19 October to celebrate biodynamic food and farming.

This is the second time that the event has been held after its successful launch last year with the support of two well-known London chefs – Michel Roux and Cyrus Todiwala.   “Top quality restaurants and chefs are choosing to use produce from biodynamic farms because they recognise its high quality and excellent nutritional value,” the Biodynamic Agricultural Association, organiser of the event, said in a press release.

“This quality is assured by the devotion and commitment of farmers and growers throughout the world and by the strict international guidelines that producers using the Demeter label have to comply with,” the organisation added.

Demeter is the international umbrella organisation which through its network of regional certifying organisations guarantees the quality of biodynamic products throughout the world. The Demeter label is used as a certification mark on all products, which have been certified as complying with strict international standards for biodynamic production and processing.

The Biodynamic Food Fortnight is being launched on 3 and 4 October with a special event in London’s Borough Market, when there will be opportunities to sample and buy biodynamic fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy and other products at some of the participating biodynamic stalls and to eat meals prepared with biodynamic foods, including a hog roast.

There will also be presentations on the subject of biodynamic food and farming and its underlying philosophy. The event includes growers, processors, wholesalers and retailers of biodynamic products.

Biodynamic agriculture was inspired in 1924 by the holistic and spiritually oriented research of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Over the last 85 years it has grown into a worldwide movement and is now practiced in more than forty countries. It is one of the most sustainable and organic approaches and is applicable in every climatic zone. Biodynamic preparations have been described as a form of homeopathy for the earth.

Research comparing the effects of processed conventional, fresh organic and biodynamic food against a wide range of health and well being criteria has demonstrated the vitality and health giving properties of biodynamic food.

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Links: www.biodynamic.org.uk/events/food-fortnight.html, www.demeter.net

Item: 080929-01EN Date: 29 September 2008

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