Nutrition affects all people and has a strong salutogenic aspect. From a medical perspective, the focus is on topics such as dietetics and prevention. Thus, on the one hand, the question must be considered as to the nutrition people need for their healthy physical as well as mental and spiritual development; and, on the other hand, we must consider that people, through their food choices, are co-producers and thus co-creators of the world in which we live. With climate change and also the Covid-19 pandemic, we are becoming increasingly conscious of the question as to how nutrition contributes to the health of people and the planet.
The production of healthy foods from healthy soils for healthy nutrition does not stop with the harvest of the food. Processing (how many additives are allowed, what technology is used), trade (fair or as cheap as possible), preparation (cooking with love is not just a saying, it can be tasted) and way of eating (table beautifully set, in community) create food culture and are part of it. It is necessary to awaken an awareness of the connections. Because eating behaviour determines how plants and animals are bred and grown or kept.
Structure and history of the coordination field
In principle, professional groups such as ecotrophologists, dieticians, nutritionists, nutrition advisers, etc. belong to the coordination field, which is not (yet) organised like other IKAM coordination fields. The working body is the Nutrition Section which was founded in the 1980s with the participation of the Section for Agriculture and the Medical Section as well as the Working Group for Nutrition Research (Germany). At times the Section for Social Sciences was also involved in the work. Several nutrition conferences were organised by the Group – most recently in 2014 within the Section for Agriculture. From 2000 to 2015, the Working Group for Nutrition Research organised and coordinated the Nutrition Section through Dr Petra Kühne. Since 2016, it has been coordinated by Dr Jasmin Peschke in the Nutrition Department of the Section for Agriculture. It meets for two working meetings a year.
Activities
The work in the Nutrition Department of the Section for Agriculture promotes individual competence for a self-determined form of nutrition and spans the arc from cultivation to food culture, including the social dimension: from the earth – for people – for sharing. Through projects, seminars, conferences, lectures and publications, points of contact are created for people who are looking for a deepening of the nutrition question through anthroposophical spiritual science.
The Working Group for Nutrition Research offers part-time further training for qualification in the field of anthroposophical nutrition. It also conducts research projects on the importance of foods for nutrition.
![[Translate to English:] Dr. Jasmin Peschke](/fileadmin/_processed_/4/2/csm_Jasmin_Peschke_9dcee7ad19.jpg)
Coordination and contact
Dr Jasmin Peschke
Ecotrophologist
Email: jasmin.peschke@goetheanum.ch
Website: https://www.sektion-landwirtschaft.org/en/thematic-areas/nutrition-department