Biodynamic Demeter Alliance Board of Directors

Daphne Amory currently works as an advisor and coach for leaders in organizations that are involved in generative processes and reciprocal exchanges. Using tools and cues from the theatre of nature, she works to develop collective understanding for greater potential.

Alice was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up on an organic farm in England. She’s a fifth-generation steward of the land and passionate biodynamic farmer. Alice, her partner Ann, their three children, and many rescue animals live and farm at One Gun Ranch, a small Biodynamic farm in the Santa Monica Mountains. Together they have a shop, Ranch at the Pier, a general store selling everything from seeds to surfboards and authored One Gun Ranch, Malibu: Biodynamic Recipes for Vibrant Living. One Gun Ranch has helped create and build edible gardens in homes and schools on biodynamic principles across Southern California, including the UCLA Living Amphitheater/Community Garden. Alice truly believes that food is medicine, chemicals and pesticides have no place in our future, soil health is vital to our survival, and everyone should have access to seasonal nutritious produce.

Robin Brown is the Co-Founder and CEO of Erbaviva, an organic and Biodynamic personal care company established in 1996 that has pioneered the connection between the well-being of people, the earth, and its environment. With its own manufacturing facility powered with renewable energy, almost the entire product line holds USDA organic, Cosmos, or Demeter Biodynamic certifications. The same high standards are applied to the products that Erbaviva develops and produces for other like-minded brands. Erbaviva is also a certified B-Corp.

Robin’s background is in creative photography, often chronicled in his worldwide travels. After moving from the UK to the US, he realized a successful career as a cinematographer in the film industry. Fueled by the desire to pursue a more sustainably oriented career, he applied his pioneering spirit to creating Erbaviva and turned it into the flourishing international company it is today. Next step, Ojai, California, and the plans for a biodynamic farming facility and the production of hard-to-find Biodynamic ingredients to utilize in the Erbaviva product line.

Justina Chiang has a deep passion for entrepreneurship, building teams, and driving change. A leader in supply chain operations for more than 20 years, her experience ranges from large corporations to pre-launch start-ups. She got her start at GE Healthcare, where she cut her teeth in supply chain operations, gaining a deep understanding of forecasting, inventory management, and fulfillment (her team was responsible for over $3 billion in revenue). From there, Justina embarked on her start-up journey at Harry’s. As their first operations hire, she put their logistics and forecasting teams and processes in place. Her next stint was at S’well, which was experiencing explosive revenue growth and hired her to put processes in place to make them more efficient.

Justina is currently the COO of Nara Organics, an organic, clean baby food company, currently in the pre-launch stage. They are creating the first organic whole milk, no-palm, no-soy infant formula made in the US and have the long-term goal of sourcing all ingredients from Biodynamic farms and creating the first Biodynamic infant formula.

Justina is committed to educating consumers on the biodynamic food chain and farming practices. Through education, she hopes to create more consumer demand, which, in turn, would make biodynamic farmers more financially efficient. Justina has a Masters and Bachelors of Science in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Jennie Clifford operates her family's certified Biodynamic and organic farm in northeastern Pennsylvania where she’s been making biodynamic preparations and practicing biodynamics since the 1990s. The farm has been in the family since the late 1800s. She has consulted for agriculture-related operations and has worked for Demeter and a number of organic certification agencies as an evaluator and certification reviewer since 2003.

Megan Durney joined the Pfeiffer Center as an intern in 2006 and throughout the years has delved deeply into the art of biodynamics through study and practice and has been involved in preparation making, draft power, beekeeping, seed saving, intensive production gardening, and biodynamic education and training. Currently she is a part of a collaborative leadership team working alongside the Fellowship Community, an intergenerational community centered around the care of the elderly, integrating land and educational programs in a new cooperative endeavor, creating a mutually supportive association of work and community.

Gaby González is a soil scientist, an architect, and a third-generation Mexican farmer, descended from a proud campesino grandfather and schooled by her father in the ways of modern industrial agriculture, an approach she found seriously flawed. The lessons she learned from both of them found a new meaning when she discovered biodynamic agriculture. It became its lifestyle and the way to attract tools for the challenges to come in life and the deepening in learning the language of nature.

Beth Hoinacki lives and farms with her family at Goodfoot Farm, a small, diversified market farm in the coastal foothills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The farm is also home to chickens, geese, sheep, horses, the occasional couple of pigs, cats and dogs, and a multitude of wildlife. A deep appreciation for the natural environment was likely instilled in her during her early years, growing up in rural southern Illinois where she worked for a neighbor picking and selling flowers for market, worked alongside her parents maintaining county cemeteries no longer in active use, and spent time wandering in the woods and fields and reading books.

Over the years and in many places, she has been a horseback riding instructor, a food server, a maid, a whitewater raft guide, a ski technician, and a scientist. Now she farms full time and wholeheartedly. Beth received her BA in Biology with a minor in Religion from Earlham College and her PhD in Botany and Plant Pathology from Oregon State University. She worked as an inspector and reviewer for Demeter from 2008–2016.

Marjory House has been gardening and farming in the Willamette valley of Oregon for over twenty years. She currently owns and operates a seven-acre farm with over 450 apple trees and over an acre of vegetables grown for restaurants and farmers markety. She has maintained a fruit tree pruning business for fifteen years and a biodynamic consulting business for the last seven years. She can be reached by her email at gobiodynamic@gmail.com.

Anna and her husband Doug own and manage Vilicus Farms, a first-generation, organic, 13,000-acre dryland crop farm in Northern Hill County, Montana, growing a diverse array of organic heirloom and specialty grain, pulse, oilseed and broadleaf crops under five- and seven-year rotations. With over 26% of their land in non-crop conservation and 400 acres seeded to native pollinator habitat, Vilicus Farms became Bee Better certified in 2019, Real Organic Project Certified in 2019, and has been transitioning towards Demeter Biodynamic certification. Vilicus Farms offers the only structured organic grain farming apprenticeship in the US, with the vision of incubating new organic agricultural enterprises. They have hosted 13 apprentices, many interns, and more farm campers than can be counted.

Two new agrarian enterprises are currently under incubation at Vilicus Farms: a grazing operation integrated into the cropping system and an organic seed production operation. Vilicus Training Institute (VTI) launched in 2015 to inspire increased scope and scale of organic land management across the Northern Great Plains. VTI serves as a not-for-profit learning laboratory that cultivates collaborations enabling both new organic land stewards and the circumstances that support their prosperous stability. VTI is a founding board member of the Montana Agrarian Commons.

Anna is a Donella Meadows Leadership Fellow and a recipient of the White House Greening Government Sustainability Hero Award. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a minor in Sustainable Systems from Georgia Institute of Technology. Anna served on the USDA Secretary’s Advisory Council on Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. She currently serves on the Xerces Society Bee Better Advisory Board and Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT’s Board of Directors. Given the realities of farming Anna still has an off-farm job with the USDA Forest Service. After several decades fostering more sustainable operations, she is now currently serving as the Director for Data Governance for the Northern Region.

Arizona Muse's career speaks for itself. The American‘s major breakthrough came in 2011 with covers for Vogue Paris, Vogue Italia, Vogue Korea, Vogue Russia, and Vogue Australia — not to mention Self Service and Dazed & Confused. The latter dubbed Muse as the industry's newest muse. She's since covered every major Vogue, including its American and British editions, making her one of the distinct few who have booked covers for the "Big Four": US Vogue, Vogue Paris, Vogue Italia, and Vogue UK. When she starred in a 14-page editorial feature in US Vogue, Anna Wintour compared her to DNA Model Management's resident icons, Linda Evangelista and Natalia Vodianova. Her inimitable presence, paired with her glowing, infectious smile, has fronted campaigns for the industry's best: Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Saint Laurent, and Prada. She's also become a favorite of leading jewelers including Chopard, David Yurman, Roberto Coin, and Tiffany & Co. In 2012, the model-mother signed a lucrative, multi-year cosmetics contract with Estée Lauder. Famously, she's been the face of Estée Lauder's popular fragrance, Modern Muse. Everyone from Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Alasdair McLellan, and Inez & Vinoodh to Patrick Demarchelier, Craig McDean, Mert & Marcus, and David Sims have photographed Muse for countless editorial and commercial projects. She continues to work alongside the industry's finest tastemakers.

More recently, Muse has dedicated her efforts towards sustainability in fashion. For the last 7 years, Muse has advocated for better environmental practices, urging the fashion industry to examine its relationship with the world via her wide range of partnerships with Chopard, G-Star Raw, Mango, and London's V&A Museum.

The passionate activist has protested alongside Extinction Rebellion, a socio-political movement with the aim of using civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance to compel government action on climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse.

Arizona has a particular passion for Biodynamic farming and takes her children to volunteer on Biodynamic farms. She recently launched her own charity, DIRT— Foundation for the Regeneration of Earth, whose mission is to support the biodynamic farming movement by raising awareness and funds.

She has adopted the role as a sustainability consultant for fashion companies who wish to lower their environmental impact. Arizona sits on the board of The Sustainable Angle, a non-profit organization that initiates and supports projects that minimize the environmental impact of the fashion industry, and contributes to Fashion Revolution, a team of business leaders, policymakers and brands who work together towards radically changing the way clothes are sourced, produced, and consumed.

Photo credit: Shope Delano

Joseluis M. Ortiz y Muniz is an indigenous, land-based, native New Mexican from the Genizaro land grant (La Merced de Santo Tomas el Apostol de Rio de Las Trampas) village of Llano De La Yegua. He currently lives with his daughter, Corina, and his life partner, Luzero, in his maternal village of San Antonio Del Rio Embudo in the high desert of Northern New Mexico, where together they tend to their crops, care for their livestock, and steward his ancestral lands. He has roots in traditional agriculture that was passed on inter-generationally through his family, and maintains a traditional land- and acequia-based way of life on land his family has cared for since time immemorial. He was born and raised in and grew up farming the High Llanos of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains and the low valleys of the Embudo River Valley. He, his family, and his community grow corn, beans, squash, chile, legumes, fruit trees, wheat, sheep, horses, hogs, and pasture, as well as hundreds of varieties of fruits and vegetables.

For ten years Joseluis worked with the volunteer and grassroots-community based Environmental and Economic Justice organization called Los Jardines Institute in the South Valley of Atrisco in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There he volunteered and interned with community leaders Sofia Martinez and Richard Moore, supporting them in building and developing land-based socially sustainable systems and transforming community by creating healthy realities where we live, work, play, pray, and go to school. For many years he directed programs at La Plazita Institute, working with adjudicated, struggling, addicted, incarcerated, and traumatized youth, families, and elders, supporting them to transform their lives through cultural and traditional healing and land based ways of living and knowing. His work and learning in community were part of a journey of self-transformation and self-discovery to overcome the hardships young people face in occupied Northern New Mexico.

Today, he is the Community Liaison and Visiting Research Scientist at Sostenga for the Greenroots Institute at the Northern New Mexico College, where he works with world-renowned traditional farmer, water rights advocate, and community leader and elder Don Bustos to help coordinate the development of grassroots community-driven processes to determine and implement environmentally, economically, and culturally sustainable plans—rooted in water, food, and economic security—for the future of Northern New Mexico Culture.

A proud father rooted in community, Joseluis is a trainer for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Anti-Racism; and is a very active community member. In addition to serving as a board member of the Biodynamic Demeter Alliance (BDA), he is also the Board President for the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, a Board member of the Espanola Famers Market, a member of La Cosecha del Norte (“a growing coop”), and the community-elected Mayordomo for the Acequia Del Llano del Rio Embudo.

Jessica fell in love with growing food for her community while working alongside her parents and grandparents in their gardens and orchard, and later through work with market farms in Northwest Pennsylvania. Her farm management experience has included work on Biodynamic farms, and as she prepares to plant gardens and food forest on her newly acquired homestead, she is embracing the impulse to learn more and apply biodynamic practices and principles. Jessica works as the Co-Director of Certification for Real Organic Project, a farmer-led movement that upholds the integrity of organic farming, ensuring that crops are grown in healthy, living soil and animals are raised on pasture. During the growing season, she visits scores of farms. Each one is beautifully unique, but they all have at least one thing in common: they are working to heal the earth through their responsible practice of agriculture.

Steffen finished his agricultural university studies in Giessen, Germany, in 1982. He has been a biodynamic practitioner since 1983, first in Wisconsin, and since 1989 at Hawthorne Valley Farm. He loves working with the livestock, especially the dairy cows, and his passion for biodynamics continues to grow. He is convinced that a spiritually grounded agriculture is a major lever for societal transformation.

Steffen has given workshops and lectured at numerous national and international conferences. Through the Institute for Mindful Agriculture, he is currently engaged in food justice projects in the Hudson Valley of New York and supports food systems change in collaboration with several agricultural ventures, locally and nationally. Before joining the Demeter Board, and now the Alliance Board, Steffen served on the Board of the Biodynamic Association of North America for 10 years.

He lives with his partner Rachel in Columbia County, New York, and is grateful to be able to spend more time with his two sons and three granddaughters.

Thomas is inspired by farms as dynamic places of cultural, ecological, and economic regeneration, with the potential for healing land and people. Thomas is president of Angelic Organics Association (AOA), a community land trust and umbrella organization dedicated to social, economic, and cultural renewal through the integration of education, agriculture, and the arts. AOA protects land in perpetuity for organic-biodynamic agriculture, farming education, and land conservation. AOA holds a creative space for unity and freedom among its members — Angelic Organics CSA Farm (www.angelicorganics.com) and Angelic Organics Learning Center (www.learngrowconnect.org). Thomas co-founded Angelic Organics Learning Center in 1998 to build a local food system accountable to a quadruple bottomline: economy, ecology, equity and culture.

Since 2018, Thomas operates Holy Cow! Advisors as a consulting group focused on agro-ecology, food systems, and racial equity organizing, and since 2019 Thomas has been a trainer/organizer with the Racial Equity Institute based in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Thomas is married with eco-theologian and organizer Rev. Dr. Neddy Astudillo and they share a home in Tampa, Florida, with family, including parrots, a tortoise, fruit trees, living soils, and neighborhood chickens.

Zach Wolf oversees the farming operations at Caney Fork Farms (CFF) in Carthage, Tennessee. CFF hosts an annual conference (The Climate Underground) and an extensive research program, all while raising cattle, sheep, pigs, chestnuts, vegetables, grain, and hay across 800 certified organic and transitional organic acres.

Zach began farming as a teenager at Whippoorwill Farm in New England. After a degree in Biology from Columbia University and research engagements at Aton Forest Ecological Research Station and The Earth Institute, he went on to manage the field operations and direct the Growing Farmers Initiative at Stone Barns Center. He has facilitated the Farm Beginnings Program at Hawthorne Valley Farm, served as the Director of Farm Operations at Glynwood, and most recently as a Research Fellow at The Nature Institute. He currently serves as a board member and on the standards committee of Demeter, USA.

You can usually find him out and about the farm, playing in the soil with his border collie, Joni.