Spirit of Sustainable Agriculture

Harvard Divinity School is pleased to host a conference on “The Spirit of Sustainable Agriculture,” from March 31-April 1, 2016. It has been more than ninety years since Rudolf Steiner offered his Agriculture Course, seventy-five since Sir Albert Howard published An Agricultural Testament, and almost forty since Wendell Berry published The Unsettling of America.  Concepts such as agroecology, biodynamics, permaculture, food miles, food deserts, food justice, and local food have all proliferated in both popular and scholarly venues over the past ten to fifteen years.  Such a sustainable agriculture gestalt is vibrant and worthy of more sustained discussion and critical attention. In this spirit, “The Spirit of Sustainable Agriculture” aims to bring together farmers, religious and spiritual leaders, and academics, respectively, to join in a robust and stimulating discussion about the spirit of sustainable agriculture, delineating its past, celebrating and investigating its present, and theorizing its future. Winona LaDuke of the White Earth Land Recovery Project and Nigel Savage of Hazon will offer keynote addresses.