Pfeiffer - Weeds and What They Tell Us

Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer was trained as a scientist in Europe. Under the tutelage of Rudolf Steiner, he worked in the field of agriculture, at a time when European farmers were beginning to notice soil and crop deterioration, in spite of the wide use of mineral fertilisers based on the Liebigs Law (which said that growth was limited only by the scarcest resource). The farmers themselves were looking for a better way to restore their worn-out soils, and to refresh their faltering supplies of viable seed. It was Dr Steiners feeling of urgency which intensified Dr Pfeiffers efforts:

The most important thing is to make the benefits of our agricultural preparations available to the largest possible areas over the entire earth, so that the earth may be healed, and the nutritive quality of its produce improved in every respect. That should be our first objective. (Rudolf Steiner: Recollections by Some of His Pupils, Golden Blade, 1958, p. 120).

When Dr Pfeiffer came to America, he established the Biochemical Research Laboratory in Spring Valley, New York. At the same time, he was putting biodynamic principles and preparations to work on his dairy farm in Chester, New York, which after seven years of biodynamic treatment, had reached the goals he had planned for it. Concurrent with managing the farm was his work on the sensitive crystallisation method of analysis for cancer and tuberculosis, and other extensive research for use by the medical profession. During the last five years of his life, Pfeiffer perfected a method of chromatography, which may be used to analyse the subtle differences in nutritional quality in various foodstuffs1. This method can be used to check quality, and to prove the value of different agricultural methods for food plants. It will be many years before scientists have thoroughly investigated the details of the methods which Dr Pfeiffer revealed, in essence and outline, both in Europe and in America. His intensive work in the laboratory was supplemented by farm surveys, field trips, biodynamic conferences, lectures on soils and agricultural methods, lectures on nutrition at Fairleigh Dickinson University and to the Natural Food Associates. Each year he led a small conference for farmers, held on an actual farm, for the purpose of helping biodynamic farmers with their problems. At these latter conferences, the highlight was often a trip to the various fields, where he took soil profiles and spoke extemporaneously out of his vast understanding of the geology, climate, and plants, as well as the insects and birds which inhabited that place. He had deep knowledge of the facts about each of these kingdoms knowledge which he had augmented and substantiated many times by work in the laboratory. He took special care to point out the valuable qualities of certain plants, many of them weeds, as they grew in living relation to other plants.

This book presents one small segment of his knowledge of living plants: how they grow, what they reveal about their surroundings, and how their powers may be harnessed for the benefit of the human beings who appreciate and use them.

John Philbrick