Artur Granstedt, born in 1943, lives on a small farm in Mölnbo, Sweden with his family. He and his wife have four children and seven grand children.
He has been head of the Biodynamic Research Institute in Järna, Sweden since 1998.

Already as a child he showed a lively interest in biodynamic agriculture with practical gardening and experimental work. In 1983 he became MSc in Agriculture, Soil and Plant Sciences at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala and PhD in Plant Nutrient Sciences in 1990 and worked also as adviser in organic and biodynamic agriculture visiting farmers around in Sweden. From 1987-1993 he worked as an extension specialist in ecological agriculture at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and trained advisors in the government advisory service in organic farming during a period of rapid expansion of organic farming in Sweden. He has written hundreds of articles giving advice in organic farming, many international scientific articles as well as text books in organic farming that have been published in the Nordic countries. From 1993 to 1997 he headed the Finnish research programme in ecological agriculture at the Agricultural Research Centre of Finland. In 1996 he started the Swedish wholesale company for Biodynamic Products. In 2001 Artur Granstedt became Associate Professor in Ecological Agriculture at the University of Helsinki and in the same year Associate Professor in Crop Production Science at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala. From 2003 to 2006 Artur Granstedt initiated and co-ordinated the EU Interreg III B project: Baltic Ecological Recycling Agriculture and Society in which more than 50 researchers from different disciplines and from the 8 countries around the Baltic Sea participated. All printed reports and project results are available online.  These results form the basis of a new three year project which is being planned with the goal to convert all agriculture within Baltic Sea Drainage area to Ecological Recycling Agriculture and Biodynamic Farming in order to protect the Baltic Sea from the leaching of plant nutrients and agro chemicals from industrial agriculture.

Having been the last in the row of economical and social development over years, agriculture since 2007 has advanced to one of the top priorities in politics and even business life. Challenges ahead are to nourish the world population (food security), face and match the climate change and struggle with peak oil and energy plants in concurrence to food production. In all this fields agriculture plays a crucial role. At the same time organic agriculture is becoming mainstream. The challenge occurs in the conventionalization of organic agriculture – specialization and industrialization. Besides of that genetic engineering is knocking even louder at Europe’s doors.

So, where is and what role does biodynamic agriculture play in this perspective? What strategies, which synergies are to be taken to not only react but being active in shaping the future? In Järna some interesting developments took place in recent years. We are going to trace them down. We ask the stakeholders and entrepreneurs how successful they were and what they would do differently if they could start anew, today.

Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goldman, Bantam Books, 1995
Frames of Mind, Howard Gardner, HarperCollins Publishers, 1983
Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner, HarperCollins Publishers, 1993
Seven Kinds of Smart, Thomas Armstrong, Penguin Books New York, 1993

Leadership and Organizations

The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, 1990
Principle-Centered Leadership, Stephen Covey, Simon & Schuster, 1990

Relaxation and Learning

Whole-Brain Thinking, Jacquelyn Wonder and Pricilla Donovan, William Morrow, 1984

Self Image and Success

The Road Less Travelled, M Scott Peck, Arrow Books, 1990
Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill, Ballantine Books, 1960

Environment

Being on Earth by Maier, Brady and Edelglass or The Marriage of Sense and Thought by Edelglass, Maier et al.

Service and Euntreprenure

The Art of the Start, Guy Kawaski
Small Giants, Bo Burlingham
Built to Last, Jim Collins
Good to Great, Jim Collins
How to Change the World, David Bornstein
Enterprising Non-Profits, Greg Dees
Sources of Innovation, Peter Drucker
Capitalism at the Crossroads, Stu Hart
Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers, Brent Green