Demeter

What is Demeter?

Demeter is three things at once: a trademark for biodynamically produced food, the name of the oldest organic farming association and, in a wider sense, a synonym for biodynamic farming as a whole. The name comes from Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture and fertility.

Demeter is regarded as the strictest of the organic standards. Anyone who wants to carry the mark meets not only the legal organic requirements but a whole series of further requirements, above all the compulsory work with the biodynamic preparations and the development of the farm as a farm organism. Over 90 percent of Demeter's customers in the German-speaking countries are in Germany; internationally, the association is represented in many countries.

Trademark, association and method: three levels

In everyday use these three meanings are often mixed up, which leads to misunderstandings. As a trademark, Demeter labels a product. As an association, Demeter organises producers, processors and certification. As a method, the name stands for biodynamic agriculture after Rudolf Steiner. Anyone who says "Demeter" means one or the other depending on the context.

Origin and history

The starting point was Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course at Whitsun 1924 at Koberwitz estate. The organisation grew out of the movement that followed, in several steps.

As early as 1927, the Demeter marketing company was founded. 1928 brought the Demeter mark and the first Demeter standards. In 1932, the term Demeter was registered as a trademark at the patent office in Munich; in 1954, the Demeter-Bund received the trademark rights. This makes Demeter the oldest organic farming association of all, decades before the EU organic regulation and most other associations.

Demeter as an addition, not a replacement

A key point: the Demeter standard sits on top of the EU organic regulation. A Demeter farm is always EU organic certified as well and additionally meets the further Demeter requirements. Where the two differ, the EU regulation takes precedence; Demeter tightens it but does not replace it.

Added to this is the logic of the positive list: what the standards do not expressly allow is not permitted. This covers production methods, raw materials, ingredients, feed and farm inputs. This logic makes Demeter narrower than EU organic, not broader.

How does Demeter differ from EU organic and other associations?

Several points go beyond the general organic standard and beyond associations such as Bioland or Naturland.

Compulsory work with the preparations. The biodynamic preparations are compulsory: horn manure 500 at least once a year on all land, horn silica 501 in a way suited to the crop, the compost preparations in all organic farmyard manures. No other association requires this.

Farm organism and livestock. The guiding image is a largely closed farm cycle; animals, above all ruminants, are a central part of it. Horticultural holdings above a certain size have a minimum livestock requirement.

Seed. Hybrid varieties of cereals are excluded and open-pollinated varieties are preferred; in horticulture, CMS varieties (cell fusion) are banned.

Tighter limits. Nitrogen fertilisation is capped (around 112 kg N/ha on average across the farm), below the EU requirements.

Genetic engineering and social responsibility. GMOs are excluded along the whole chain, including "new genomic techniques". Every Demeter farm also publishes a statement on social responsibility.

The biodynamic basis

Behind all this lies a different understanding of nature. The Demeter standards put it in their first chapter: biodynamic agriculture aims for "a farm cycle that is as closed as possible" and wants to "develop farms as individual farm organisms", taking into account the interplay of people, animals, plants and soil "up to cosmic influences". One of its main aims is "to promote the liveliness of the soil". The preparations are the defined practice that carries this approach.

Demeter seed and plant breeding

Demeter goes further than others on seed: there is a separate biodynamic plant breeding with verifiable criteria. Varieties "from biodynamic breeding" go through at least four years of selection under biodynamic conditions, hybrid breeding is excluded, and the history of a variety must be publicly traceable. For customers this means that Demeter seed stands out not only through the logo, but through documented transparency about origin and breeding.

Demeter internationally

Demeter is organised internationally today. The framework is set by the Biodynamic Federation Demeter International, the umbrella organisation that the national organisations follow, among them Demeter e. V. in Germany (with regional associations) and Demeter Switzerland. National rules may be stricter than the international umbrella standard but may not deviate from it.

How does a farm become a Demeter farm?

Recognition comes through a certification process with conversion over several years and annual inspection. The details (conversion period, registration deadlines, what is inspected) are described in the entry on Demeter certification.

In context

As an organic standard, Demeter indisputably has the most far-reaching requirements. Its biodynamic basis has anthroposophical roots, which is part of the public debate about the association, ranging from criticism of esoteric elements to studies that credit the system with advantages in soil fertility and product quality (see biodynamics and science). Anyone assessing Demeter should keep trademark, method and world view apart.