• Ernesto Genoni: Australia’s pioneer of biodynamic agriculture

    Author(s):
    John Paull (see profile)
    Date:
    2014
    Subject(s):
    Agriculture--Sociological aspects, History, Biography, Artists--Biography, Biography--Study and teaching, Sustainability
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Sustainable technology, Organic farming, history of agriculture, Rudolf Steiner, Sociology of agriculture, Artist biography, Biography Studies
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/w7kz-km80
    Abstract:
    Ernesto Genoni (1885-1975) pioneered biodynamic agriculture in Australia. In 1928 he was the first of (ultimately) twelve Australians to join Rudolf Steiner’s Experimental Circle of Anthroposophical Farmers and Gardeners (ECAFG), based at the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland. Ernesto trained as an artist for five years at Milan’s prestigious Brera Academy. He visited his brothers in Australia, broad-acre immigrant farmers in Western Australia, in 1912 and 1914 and during these visits he worked on their, and other’s, farms. In 1916 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and served as a stretcher bearer on the battlefields of the Somme, France, before being conscripted into the Italian Army and serving jail-time in Italy as a draft resister and conscientious objector. Ernesto joined the Anthroposophical Society in Milan in 1919. He first met Rudolf Steiner in 1920 at the Goetheanum, Anthroposophy headquarters, Switzerland. Ernesto left the Goetheanum in 1924 when Steiner retired from public life. He migrated to Australia in 1926 with aspirations for a career as an artist in Australia. Instead, having arrived in Australia, he was again drawn into farm management and agricultural work. Ernesto was a champion for biodynamic agriculture, Anthroposophy, and the Austrian New Age philosopher, Rudolf Steiner - causes to which he devoted the rest of his life. In 1928 he initiated the first Anthroposophy meetings in Melbourne. In 1930 Ernesto made a grand tour of biodynamic enterprises in Europe and met the leading biodynamics advocates and practitioners of the day in Germany, Switzerland and England, including Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Erika Riese, Ernst Stegemann, and Carl Mirbt. In 1935 Ernesto and his partner, Ileen Macpherson, who was also a member of the ECAFG, began their biodynamic farm called Demeter Biological Farm in Dandenong, Victoria. Ernesto was a founder of the Anthroposophical Society Victoria Michael Group in 1932, and he became its leader in 1962.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Publisher:
    Journal of Organics
    Pub. Date:
    2014
    Journal:
    Journal of Organics
    Volume:
    1
    Issue:
    1
    Page Range:
    57 - 81
    ISSN:
    2204-1060
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    Attribution
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