>Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 11:28:41 +0930
>From: Gil Robertson <gilrob@dove.net.au>
>X-Accept-Language: en
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>To: Hugh Lovel <uai@alltel.net>, Demeter@baldcom.net, biodynamic@aol.com
>Subject: Re: Biodynamics and BD Preps.
>
>To The B.D.A., Demeter and the U.A.I.
>
>Hi! Folk,
>
>I would like to speak to Hugh Lovel's Emails, this date, on the issue of the
>use of the terms Biodynamic and BD Prep.
>
>Thank you Hugh for including me in the discussion.
>
>I too am concerned about potential future moves by your USDA, having watched
>with interest, the Organic saga through the pages of AcresUSA for the past
>four
>or five years.
>
>I would think it only a matter of time until the USDA moves to mutate the BD
>Movement and anything else that invites the wrath of the chemical gods.
>
>I call for unity, not division on this issue. What is more important?, an
>individual's grip in the trophy called holding control over the use of a name,
>before all others? Or need for an industry wide consensus on the meaning, use
>and access. If you guys have spare money to gamble, I recommend "Two Up", at
>least some one wins there, but I have never heard of a return from lawyers and
>courts.
>
>I do not understand how your Government issued a trademark on BIODYNAMIC. I
>would have thought that under common law it would only be available to some
>entity able to show that they had made some contribution to something that was
>new, unique and innovative. Alternatively, an non commercial body might be
>granted a mark to allow care and administration over the ethics and access.
>This would need to be a group who could show decentancy or other connection
>with the "Experimental Circle", see page 4 of "Agriculture", BDA printing
>1993.
>Steiner did not coin the term, but that group. See page 262 of the same
>publication.
>
>I do not see how any American entity can be granted exclusive use.
>
>Do we look forward to one church obtaining a trademark of "Christian" and have
>them make the followers of all the other churches no longer use the term?
>
>Does your Government Office realise that the term as well as the process did
>not originate in the either the US or in the English Language? I find the
>granting of a limit on the use of Biodynamics as ridiculous as your Government
>granting Plant Rights on peasant selected species, thus giving multinationals
>monopolies over organisms to which they have contributed nothing beyond
>obtaining the seed and growing it on. But I am Australian and not well versed
>with your idiosyncrasies.
>
>Would it not be better to form a small public entity with suitable
>representation, to control the appointment of Certification bodies, to which
>those wishing to play that role, including the current players, would apply? I
>have a number of suggestions on how this may work.
>
>There are several basic points that beg consideration.
>
>* None of us contributed anything that can possibly be construed to give
>one of
>us an exclusive right over the terms Biodynamic or BD Prep.
>
>* We all have an obligation to allow the widest possible availability of
>access to the end product of Biodynamics - the best possible food. This must
>involve a co-operative effort to assist as many farmers as possible to convert
>to BD farming.
>
>* This, I believe, calls for inclusive rather than exclusive policies. In my
>reading of Steiner, I believe that he was offering a growing and evolving
>system and that he encouraged others to extend the work, not to try and
>keep it
>fixed at any particular point of evolution. Thus Hugh Lovel's Field
>Broadcasters are just as much a part of BD as the familiar vortex we make and
>break.
>
>* Steiner also saw the spiritual aspect of BD of considerable importance. I
>think we should honour the living spirit of BD and co-operate to make it
>flourish. Lets not fight amoung our selves, but make a united stand, to
>offer a
>real challenge to chemical farming.
>
>Gil Robertson
>Port Lincoln
>Australia
>
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jul 21 2000 - 09:00:31 EDT