Quantum Thinking for Agroecology
Funder
Various
Value
Start up
Collaborators
Various across Europe, plus Brazil, USA, Cuba, S Africa, Russia, Australia
Team
Julia Wright, Saskia von Diest, Janus Bojesen Jensen, Miche Fabre Lewin, Flora Gathorne Hardy
Project Objectives
This research programme aims to explore the Principle of Complementarity or Wave-Particle Duality as it applies to agriculture. It involves the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the non-material world through observation, communication and experiment. This is achieved through both a mechanistic and a transpersonal approach. Key themes of enquiry are: the history of science, traditional knowledge and agriculture, the development of appropriate methodologies and metrics, and current practices and their effectiveness. In doing so it aims to both understand existing indigenous and biodynamic farming knowledge and practice, and to explore and discover new knowledge and practice.
Project Impacts
The overall purpose of this research programme is to improve farm performance worldwide by addressing the ‘hidden half’ of agriculture. Farm performance is not only measured in terms of yield and productivity, but also systems health, human wellbeing, and harmony, and practitioner-generated evidence indicates one-off farm performance increases of approx. 30%. As well as this, the research will contribute to understanding existing knowledge and practices of indigenous farming communities worldwide, as well as the modern biodynamic farming approaches. This will go a long way to supporting cognitive justice for indigenous peoples, that is the right of multiple knowledge forms to co-exist. The new language and understanding afforded by quantum science, combined with the increasing civil society interest in spiritual issues, contributes to the timely nature of this research programme.
