Thea is a writer who shares and illuminates compelling ideas, questions, and experiences.
Thea writes about earth stewardship, farming and gardening, organizational change, social justice, healing and transformation.
Walking among flames
Living with Fire, 2021
In April I participated in my first prescribed burn, and for the first time intentionally walked among flames, carrying a drip torch and putting good fire on the ground. The idea of prescribed burning is not new to me—we hosted two prescribed burns at Monan's Rill, in 2018 and 2019—but I was not directly involved. It was not until the wildfire came across this land in 2020, and I saw how the 2019 prescribed burn protected the forest in that area, that I decided to take an active role in burning.
Finding and Addressing the Underlying Imbalance
Reflections at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biodynamics, 2020
When I teach about the core principles and practices of biodynamics, one topic I always cover is the management of pests and disease. In chemical agriculture there is a fairly simplistic approach: anything that eats a crop is a pest, pests are bad, and they must be eradicated. Spray whatever poison is necessary to get rid of them. If they disappear, you have succeeded.
Through the lens of biodynamics, when a pest or disease shows up, we see it as a messenger of an underlying imbalance in our farm individuality. It is telling us that something within our farm or garden is out of alignment with the rhythms and dynamics of nature.
Cultivating Health and Vitality through Biodynamic Farming
EcoParent Magazine, 2019
Looking back, even though I didn’t know it then, the seeds of my career in biodynamic farming were sewn early on. When I was growing up in the 80's, one of my mother's highest priorities was feeding my sister and me the healthiest food she could find. Earning her living as a musician and music teacher while raising two children on her own, my mother always found ways to minimize spending on other things so that we could eat well. We did most of our shopping at the local natural food store and farmers’ market, choosing organic produce whenever available, regardless of how many bugs or blemishes we found on it. Every spring we also planted a small vegetable and flower garden in the backyard, though its yields varied with the sporadic attention and water we gave it in the busy months that followed.
Although organic food was important for my family, as a child and young adult I never imagined that my career would be in food and farming. I entered college planning to study environmental science, and it was only through a study abroad semester in the Brazilian Amazon that I came to see the tremendous impact that the way we grow our food has on the earth. After seeing the Amazon rainforest being destroyed in front of my eyes to make way for agriculture, I returned to the United States determined to find and practice an approach to agriculture that could benefit nature. I explored sustainable agriculture, agroecology, organic agriculture, permaculture, and biointensive gardening, but biodynamics was the path that resonated most deeply with me.
Managing an Organization like a Biodynamic Farm
Kosmos, 2015
A commercial industrial farm is a machine, but a biodynamic farm is a living organism. Guided by ecological, ethical and holistic principles, biodynamic farmers work to bring all the elements of their farms – crops, livestock, compost, soils – into right relationship, so that they balance and support each other, creating a self-sustaining whole.
The Biodynamic Association is the oldest sustainable agriculture organization in North America, and throughout our 77-year history we have sought the evolutionary edge in farming. We have also questioned how we might manage our nonprofit membership association more like a biodynamic farm –more like a living organism.
In his book Reinventing Organizations, Frederic Laloux describes an “evolutionary” and “soulful” organizational management model that closely parallels biodynamic farming. A “Teal” organization, as he calls them:
“… is viewed as a living system, an entity with its own energy, its own identity, its own creative potential and sense of direction. We don’t need to tell it what to do; we just need to listen, partner with it, join it in its dance, and discover where it will take us.”
After encountering Laloux’s work and the growing community of organizations who are adopting Teal, this year we decided to undertake our own transformation at the Biodynamic Association.