...Organic gardening and farming reduced to their essentials are simply applied ecology. Chemical farming—the so‐called scientific agriculture of today—in treating nature as an enemy to be overcome rather than an ally to be accommodated, is unecological and is providing food often of doubtful value at the expense of our priceless and vital topsoil. Any sane person who studies the evidence must come to this conclusion.
But great as [Sir Albert] Howard’s experiments during his 40 years in India, and revolutionary as the subsequent tests at Haughley and elsewhere have been, one important phase of applied ecology was left out of the experiments and has remained neglected to this day. It goes by the name of plant symbiosis, the ability of certain species of plants to help each other by their mere presence, and its opposite, plant antagonism where both do poorly.
The Bio‐Dynamic group acting independently had, it seems, long been aware of the role of companion plants in producing better crops.
‐ Devin A. Garrity, Preface, vii‐viii, Companion Plants and how to use them by Helen Philbrick and Richard Gregg, 1966.
In the early days of the development of this physical‐chemical path, there were only a few inorganic elements believed to be worth applying to plants. But the list grew longer and, as time went on, minor elements joined the major nutrients. Recently, not only inorganic but also organic compounds were found to be active. Among these are root excretions, organic substances present in leaves, stubbles, roots, etc. Thus, the picture becomes more and more complicated. The search for the biological principles that steer this tangled complex of effects and counter-effects is an important one. The plant itself is a mighty factor in this. It has specific influences on the other plants and on the microlife of the soil. ... A quotation from Goethe expresses what we are speaking of here: "Nothing happens in living Nature that is not in relation to the whole." This may be termed one of the leading ideas of the Bio-Dynamic concept.
‑ Dr. agr. H. H. Koepf, Introduction, pgs. xi‐xii, Companion Plants and how to use them by Helen Philbrick and Richard Gregg, 1966.
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