by Dan Ditzler
Walter Goldstein is a corn breeder and founder of the Mandaamin Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to developing nutrient-rich, Nitrogen efficient, GMO resistant corn for organic farmers. After earning his MSc and PhD in agronomy from Washington State University, Walter spent 25 years leading research at the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute before launching Mandaamin in 2011.
Most recently he has been breeding corn on the Zinniker Farm in Wisconsin and elsewhere, using the biodynamic preparations whenever possible. If he acquired other seeds, he noticed that they began to change, regardless of their genetics being “fixed”. These new corn plants started to become easier to grow, getting more Nitrogen and becoming more adaptable to the climate… This is not supposed to happen!
So, Walter started to try and figure out what was going on, and thought maybe the microbes living in the plants were changing. He tried inoculants, and sterilizing and analyzing the corn, but still couldn’t figure out what was going on. Walter enlisted the help of James White, a microbiologist at Rutgers University, and through microscopic imaging could see that the biodynamically grown plants were transforming. The seeds started to change appearance; the protein in the grain was changing. This transformation appeared in the corn wherever biodynamics was being practiced.
“I have always been interested in the question of how the biodynamic preparations work. So, we began to try seed soaks with the seeds of corn soaking in water with different biodynamic preparations and then transplanted them. Handsome Lake, a Senica Elder, once advised people to soak seeds in extracts and germinate them in that. We experimented with different Nitrogen efficient leaf extracts, but ultimately the biodynamic preparations, specifically the oak bark preparation, provided the strongest plants.
We started focusing on the microbes living on leaves of plants; the chloroplasts that fix carbon out of the air were becoming colonized very strongly by these microbes. When the preparations were added it fostered this microbial colonization. The result has been an increase in yield, more protein and more oil than in the past! I was seeing a coevolution going on, fostered by the use of the biodynamic preparations. The nutritional value of our corn seemed to be increasing. This is revolutionary and theoretically enormous stuff here! Putting the plants into the field… in the field.
The plants take up whole bacteria in the soil and can regain this capacity to mine bacteria, growing them in their tissues. The microbial bodies have sulfur containing amino acids to protect themselves from the plant. In the Agriculture course, Rudolf Steiner puts forward a desire for living Nitrogen within the farm system. In comparing biodynamically grown corn vs conventional corn, there is an intense colonization of hairy plants filled with bacteria on the biodynamic plants, circling like crazy in the hairs and spilling out into the skin. These act almost like prison cells where they are being attacked by oxygen and hydrogen peroxide, blasting in the xylem and supportive tissues around it; they live in this mucilage and produce nitrate in the skin and hairs of the plant. They have living Nitrogen on their surface!
We have lost this process in a lot of conventional varieties. According to a University study we conducted, we found our corn was way ahead in vitamins and minerals, more than even organic farms. A lot of people say, “the plant needs Nitrate or ammonium from chicken manure,” but plants are farmers too! They can select microbes that are adapted to the specific plant and spread that across generations!
The plants have lost their partners. Biodynamics helps to restore them! Biodynamics can be a real tool to breed crops that are worthy of human beings. We have to be worthy of the crops! Breeding is becoming an exact way of working with computers and genetics. The kind of breeding Walter is doing, in contrast, takes a human being paying attention and learning and participating and improving themselves.
“You have to breed yourself, not just the plant. More people need to be involved in this! How do we experiment and keep this going? What are your favorite plants? We can start to do research, developing biodynamic seeds with high nutrition, establishing a network, and lots of small scale people.”
Walter Goldstein will be a speaker this year at the Fellowship of Preparation Makers gathering in Oregon, where we hope to launch a 2027 growing season pilot project.
