Our Researchers

Walter Goldstein became interested in organic and biodynamic farming when he was 19. He studied biodynamics in Europe from 1976 to 1980 in Switzerland, England, and Sweden. He received his MSc and PhD in Agronomy at Washington State University in the USA, studying alternative farming systems for the Palouse region. Thereafter, he served as Research Director at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in Wisconsin for 25 years.  In 2011 he founded the Mandaamin Institute (www.mandaamin.org) with friends. 

Mandaamin Institute is a non-profit organization devoted to improving cereals. He has selected and bred corn for organic farmers for 51 seasons in Wisconsin and in Winter nurseries in Chile and Puerto Rico since 1989. He presently breeds and tests corn and wheat in Wisconsin on his farm and with colleagues and with other organic farmers. His focus is on fostering cereal plant partnerships with endophytes to convey nutritional density, nitrogen efficiency and nitrogen fixation abilities. The ultimate objective is to select, test, introduce, and commercialize better fit cultivars for making a changing world more sustainable and healthy.