John Feldman’s Travel Journal, January 30, 2025
On January 28th Sheila and I left New York for Europe. Sheila’s new work, Three Duos for violin and piano from Resilient Earth, was being premiered in Überlingen, Germany, and I had been invited to participate in a three-day workshop about Regenerating Life with Steffen and Rachel Schneider at the International Biodynamic Conference at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. I’d also agreed to appear in person at screenings of Regenerating Life and Symbiotic Earth in Portugal. We landed in Zurich where we spent the night and a day before taking the train to Germany.
On the train from Zurich to Neuhausen am Rheinfall (Switzerland) on January 30, as I watched out the window, I saw that the farm fields were mostly (but not entirely) covered in green – some sort of cover crop, winter crop, or grass. As I showed in Regenerating Life even this slight cover of green helps reduce global warming because land covered in green radiates less heat than bare fields. And, of course, such fields will grow more nutritious food in the Spring! One day I know that people will look upon bare lifeless fields as “ugly.”
John Feldman’s Travel Journal, February 20, 2025
When I was making Regenerating Life, I never imagined it would become a favorite of the biodynamic farming community. But on February 6, 7, 8, the film was the subject of a workshop at the 2025 Biodynamic Agriculture Conference at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland! The conference brought together biodynamic farmers and people interested in ecological farming from every part of the world; about 800 participants. The theme of the conference was The Earth as a Living Being, so Regenerating Life was a natural fit! On the first day, I was thrilled to see Vijay Kumar’s colleague Swati Renduchintala give a lively keynote presentation about Andhra Pradesh Community Natural Farming, which is featured in Regenerating Life as Zero Budget Natural Farming.
Our workshop entitled The Documentary Regenerating Life as Seen Through Steiner’s Seven Life Processes met for three days from 10:45 to 12:00. We had 24 participants from several countries. The workshop was led by Steffen Schneider, who is featured in Regenerating Life and Rachel Schneider, a seasoned Waldorf teacher and scholar of anthroposophy. I had prepared three 15-minute excerpt reels to start each workshop. Then the participants broke into small groups and discussed questions we had prepared. The workshop was conducted in both English and German with Steffen translating as necessary.
The general conclusion of the workshop was one of hope and a path forward as the film explained why farming ecologically helps mitigate the climate crisis. Many people expressed interest in showing the film to their communities. As a novice to Rudolf Steiner’s “seven life processes,” I was thrilled to see how well the film holds up when put under this new lens. I am grateful for being given the opportunity to learn so much and for Rachel and Steffen’s guidance.
