Nature and landscape development on organic farms

The question: 'What do we see as a good landscape?' should not only be answered by landscape ecologists and architects but also by the farmers themselves. The basic farming concept in biodynamic fanning is referred to as managing the 'farm individuality' (or farm identity). Therefore, this concept can be used as an appropriate criterion for nature and landscape development on organic/biodynamic farms. Then the question arises: How can we use the concept of farm individuality in landscape planning? At least three problems have to be solved. First, we must have a method to describe the farm individuality. Secondly, the people who live and work on the farm are part of the farm individuality, so they should participate in the planning process. Thirdly, landscape is perceived as a dynamic system and individuality is also a dynamic concept. In this paper a scientific method is presented, designed for landscape development at farm level, based on the concept of farm individuality and a Goethean-phenomenological approach. This method, complementary to the usual scientific approach, is used to come to grips with the farm as 'a whole', as 'an individuality'. The method can be characterised as a 'bottom-up' rather than a 'top-down' approach. It enables farmers to cooperate in landscape planning with all their ideas, feelings and future plans about their farm. The method will be illustrated on work recently done on a Dutch biodynamic farm, the 'Noorderhoeve'. As identity is a recent overall goal for landscape management, as formulated by the Dutch government, the method is not only relevant to biodynamic farmers, but to conventional farmers as well. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.