December 21, 2023
Dear members, supporters, and friends of the Biodynamic Demeter Alliance,
We, the Board members and Advisory Board members of the Biodynamic Demeter Alliance, wish you a peaceful and light-filled holiday season, as we mark the winter solstice.
We also want to share with you a number of updates concerning changes within the Alliance. Sheila Foster, our Executive Director, resigned effective December 15th. Please join us in extending our thanks and sincere gratitude to Sheila for her work on behalf of Biodynamics, especially for planning and organizing the most recent National Biodynamic Conference in Colorado, where the biodynamic community finally was able again to be together in person, learn and celebrate together. Thank you very much, Sheila, for this deed. All of us wish you the very best for your next endeavors!
Three Alliance Board members, Alice Bamford, Gaby Gonzalez, and Robin Brown, and two Economic Sphere Advisory Board members, Justina Chiang and Daphne Amory, are stepping away from board service. Thank you all for your contributions over the past two years; they are much appreciated!
On the threshold of the centennial of Biodynamics, which we will celebrate in 2024, we continue to be 100% committed to the vision and the goals of the Alliance. We understand that some of you will be concerned by the resignations. We acknowledge there are lessons to be learned and we intend to learn from them. We see this as an opportunity to better express an organizational framework that accurately reflects the dynamic nature of biodynamics in the broader world.
At the same time, this inflection point also brings to mind an image from Rudolf Steiner’s Agricultural Lectures,
“And when the seed that was brought to the ultimate degree of complexity has disintegrated into dust and forms a miniature chaos, then the whole surrounding universe begins to work on the seed, to leave its imprint and to build up whatever can be built up by the means of the influences coming from all sides of the universe.”
In this spirit, we reach out to you in the “biodynamic universe” and invite you to be in touch.
Please be on the lookout in the new year about next steps. In the meantime, be assured that the whole team of the Alliance has stepped up beautifully and is handling business affairs through this transition.
With immense, heartfelt gratitude,
Your Board members,
Zach Wolf, Demeter Advisory Board
zwfarms.llc@gmail.com
Steffen Schneider, Alliance Board, Demeter Advisory Board
steffen@mindfulag.org
Jessica Roberts, Alliance Board, Cultural Sphere Advisory Board
jessica@realorganicproject.org
Tenasi Rama, Cultural Sphere Advisory Board
mindfulearthfarm@gmail.com
Arizona Muse, Alliance Board, Economic Sphere Advisory Board
arizona@arizonamuse.earth
Delmar McComb, Cultural Sphere Advisory Board
delmarmcc@gmail.com
Marjory House, Alliance Board, Demeter Advisory Board
gobiodynamic@gmail.com
Beth Hoinacki, Alliance Board, Demeter Advisory Board
beth@goodfootfarm.com
Jennie Clifford, Demeter Advisory Board
jenniec@epix.net
Craig Camp, Alliance Board, member at large
craig@troonvineyard.com