History
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute-
East Troy, WI
“We wanted to help create places on earth where people could engage their creativity with enthusiasm, caring for nature and human beings in cooperation with nature instead of working against her laws, so that new socially and economically healthy enterprises could be built. We thought that this should happen in connection with, and on the basis of, agriculture,” writes Martina Mann in her 2006 autobiography, “My Life in the 20th Century”.
Ruth Zinniker, a biodynamic farmer formerly of Germany, reconnected with her European friends, Christopher and Martina Mann in 1974. Ruth encouraged the Mann’s to purchase a small farm near the Zinniker Farm, furthering their mutual goal of increasing biodynamic farming in the United States. The Mann’s purchased several hundred acres and farmsteads over the next several years which are now stewarded by Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and host an organic dairy, vegetable and flower incubator operations, research fields and student training gardens.
Michael Fields received its nonprofit status in 1984 was operated independent of the farm. It began its activities by organizing conferences, educational workshops and cultural events. The first conference in 1984 was for biodynamic farmers and held in what we now call the “white barn” where a stage was built for artistic performances. The white barn now houses our New Farmer Foundation Year students throughout their terms here. An artistically unique office building was built in 1989 with offices, kitchen, research lab, and conference center which houses Michael Fields today.
Michael Fields was founded based on the ideals of biodynamic, ecologically-sound farming, enlivened cultural values and creating opportunities for young people to enter into agriculture to address the serious decline in the quality of crops, the rise of plant diseases, soil health and the environmental impacts on the landscape at-large by recognizing the spiritual and human aspects of farming.
“It’s not just science. It’s not just business. There’s a spiritual and ethical dimension to this. Whether we live in a city, whether or not we derive an income from the land, few of us pause to consider how vital to us are such matters as how much our food is grown, and by whom, whether growing food is a profitable enterprise, the fertility of the soil, the purity of water, the conservation of Earth’s resources, and the sustainability of agriculture;" by John Hall, Director, Farming Systems.
Who is Michael Fields?
The institute’s name “Michael Fields” was taken from a housing development that Christopher Mann had built in Forest Row, England.
Read more about Zinniker Family Farm.
Read more about Christopher Mann’s current initiatives: Yggdrasil Land Foundation and Fields Neighborhood.
Read more about Biodynamics.