Brook Le Van is an artist, farmer, alchemist, and a co-founder and executive director of Sustainable Settings. Le Van, with his wife Rose, created Sustainable Settings as a 501(c)(3) in 1997. Sustainable Settings is a Demeter Certified Biodynamic working ranch and Whole Systems Learning Center featuring a raw dairy, vegetable and herb CSA, manging 244 acres in the Rocky Mountains near Carbondale, Colorado. LeVan is a NABDAP mentor farmer and a host site for Biodynamic Source.org. Sustainable Settings is also a founding member of Slow Money and has hosted two Slow Money Regional Gatherings.
Le Van holds an MFA from NYSCC in Alfred, New York and is an alumnus of the Institute for Social Ecology, Plainfield, Vermont and holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. He has his diploma in Permaculture design, education, community services, and resource development and is a consultant for Biodynamics, Permaculture, holistic management, and whole systems design and is a green design charrette facilitator. Le Van taught college and university full-time from 1990 to 1996. He has been a visiting professor and lectured regionally and nationally as an artist and farmer/rancher on small and large-scale biodynamic and beyond-organic food production and the development of living soil as a foundation for local food and energy security.
LeVan is most recently a co-founder of Biodynamic Source a non-profit devoted to the preservation and evolution of Biodynamic Agriculture through our research, consulting, educational programing, and the production and distribution of Demeter Certified Biodynamic preparations. He is on the board of three non-profit organizations and on the advisory board on numerous others. LeVan hosts "Sustainable Solutions - Interviews with Practical Visionaries" on Aspen Grassroots TV, and is an advisor and writes a regular column, "Food For Thought," for Edible Aspen magazine.
