BIODYNAMIC farmers Leonie Inger and Brett Kirkpatrick practice what they preach when it comes to reducing their carbon footprint.
The lifestyle they have chosen involves organics, a degree of self sufficiency and solar power.
The path to this lifestyle began in New Zealand, where Leonie was born on a dairy farm next to the beach in a place called Tomarata.
“It was similar to this with the hills, but we had the Pacific Ocean,” Leonie said.
Leonie studied nursing, worked in Auckland and travelled around.
She met Brett, who was from Donnybrook, when they were both studying to be naturopaths.
“Brett did his thesis on biodynamics and that’s where the passion began,” Leonie said.
“He was very inspired because biodynamics was openly taught and a lot of information was shared in New Zealand.”
Leonie and Brett had their first child at home in New Zealand, where home birth was government supported at the time.
“Then we decided to come back here because we had the offer of the family farm,” Leonie said.
Their second child was born on another family farm, where they grew medicinal herbs.
“It was much harder to do what I believed was right (with the home birth) because there was no support,” Leonie said.
The couple shifted to their current farm a year later, built their house and started using biodynamics in a small area around the house.
“At that point we had to start searching out the Biodynamics Gardeners and Farmers Association,” Leonie said.
That group was based in Bellingen, New South Wales.
Leonie and Brett eventually formed a WA group under their umbrella, with members ranging from Exmouth to Albany.
“We started putting down the biodynamic preparations on our friend’s place, but now we put them down here because we’re the most active,” Leonie said.
“We make our own set and we make a set for Biodynamics Australia, for anyone who is a member of the association and wants one.”
Leonie and Brett had their third child at home on the farm.
Brett later did a biodynamic farm consultancy course that took him around New Zealand and then back to Bellingen visiting farms and learning to make the preparations.
“You travel and you see other ways of doing things,” Leonie said.
“It starts with saving yourself, and then you can save the world – we can change our world anyway, and that’s what we’ve done.”
When Leonie and Brett moved with their family to their farm, they had the option of putting on the electricity, but found it was going to cost a significant amount of money.
“Solar power was purely a practical and cost decision,” Brett said.
“Since discovering solar power, we’ve discovered what an awesome thing it is – it is very awareness building when you’re thinking about where your power is coming from.”
According to Brett, the beauty of solar power is that it is a system onto which you can stack and build.
“As you can afford it, you can make it bigger,” he said.
When they first installed the system, there wasn’t much in the way of technical support around for solar power.
“We focused on a low-voltage 12-volt system, but unfortunately the technology was poor,” Brett said.
“Now we have sine wave inverters, which is the same as what we get through the grid system.
“These can run 240-volt compact fluoros and other more efficient whitegoods.
“If we were to do it again, the whole house would have been wired for 240 volts.”
According to Brett, fridges and washing machines these days have very low power needs, so they suit solar systems very well.
“The biggest power use other than electric heating in the house is the fridge or freezer,” Brett said.
“That was the challenge – we’re biodynamic growers, we need a cool room for the vegies,” Leonie said.
About 70 percent of the family’s food is produced on the farm, making them largely self-sufficient.
“We also have a good network of organic growers,” Leonie said. Brett said they tended to eat seasonally as well.
“We eat anything, but we prefer to eat organic,” he said.
“I just want to know what I’m eating – anything GM I don’t want to touch,” Leonie said.
Brett said when the family bought organic food, they knew it had been grown in a way that was better for the environment and had a lower carbon output.
“We believe in reducing our carbon footprint, so we will put our money where our mouth is and pay the extra for organic food,” he said.
According to Leonie, the latest thing they have done is to become a part of an organic and biodynamic meat co-op of 17 farmers who are endeavouring to get good-quality, chemical-free meat out to the public.
Brett and Leonie have a lot of plans for the future, mostly revolving around teaching people about biodynamic and organic farming.
Brett sees the farm moving into a more educational role.
“I’d like to maintain it as a living example of how you can grow organic food,” he said.
“The quality and size of organic produce now are equal or better than conventional produce.”
According to Brett, conventional agriculture relies heavily on external input.
“As those resources become less and dwindle, the question is how will we grow our food in the future?” he said.
“The GM model still requires a lot of external input – and at some point those resources will disappear.”
According to Brett, the ideal model of farming is that of a number of small farms producing a living and bringing food diversity into the local community. “Going beyond GM, we’ll still have to go back to natural farming – at some point in the future regional food production will be very important,” he said.
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