Demeter Association Celebrates 40 Years
Demeter Association (Demeter USA) turns 40 years old on July 23, 1985. I spent some time digging into old Demeter registrations and archives to unearth details about the organization's historical record and spoke with numerous individuals. Originally incorporated in Massachusetts, the first Board Officers were Maria Linder (President), Alice Bennet (Treasurer), and Lincoln Geiger (Clerk). Lincoln continued serving on the Board for many years often as President and his signature often appeared on certification decision letters sent from Demeter.
Additional Demeter Board members in the early years included: Walter Moora, Anne Mendenhall, Patricia Smith, Charles Griffin, Jim Fullmer, Parker Forsell, Christopher Meier, Steve Moore, Gena Nonini, Bob Steffen, Bu Nygrens, Charles Gansenberg, Katrina Frey, Eva-Marie Lind, William Steele, and Gina Durham. Katrina Frey became President of the Board around 2007 and served in that role until 2015.
The original Demeter office was in Burbank, CA for a brief time before moving to the farm of Anne Mendenhall near Aurora, NY when she became Executive Director. Jim Fullmer took on the role of Executive Director in about 2002, and the office moved to Philomath, OR and then to Corvalis. From 2017 to 2020 there were major changes to Demeter staff and Board. During this time, the physical office was closed and all staff worked remotely. Elizabeth Candelario was President (staff) of Demeter briefly and Terry Bolger from the UK was tapped for Certification Director for about 6 months in late 2018. Terry fell ill and did not move to the US as planned. In 2019, I was hired as Director of Certification. Staff now work remotely in Oregon, Kansas, Nebraska, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Demeter reincorporated in the State of Oregon in 2010 with the founding Board of Katrina Fry (President), Gina Durham (Secretary), Glenn McGourty (Treasurer), Morris Shriftman, Eva-Marie Lind, and Mary-Elizabeth Gifford. Attorney Paul Reidl joined the Board in 2011 bringing his trademark law expertise. Paul Dolan assumed the role of Board President in 2015 and Greg Fleishman assumed the role of Secretary. Fred Kirschenmann joined the Board from 2016 – 2018 (Fred had the first Demeter-certified farm in the USA in early 1981) . In 2019, Rudy Marchesi joined the Board and was voted President soon after. Also in this timeframe, Errol Schweizer, Victoria Byrnes, Zach Wolf, and Dr. Thimmaiah (Tim) Appachanda served on the Board. The current Board members are Beth Hoinacki (President), Zach Wolf (Vice President), Jennie Clifford (Secretary), Steffen Schneider (Treasurer), and Marjory House.
Board members are volunteers. Each member joined to bring forward something they believed in. Probably not an overstatement to say that thousands of hours have been donated to Demeter’s mission. With each change of leadership there were different visions brought to Demeter. There were successes and challenges long the way – each bringing growth or opportunities for growth.
Originally, Demeter offered organic certification as a steppingstone to Biodynamic certification. The USDA launched the National Organic Program in 2001 regulating organic certification. Around the same time, Demeter International pointed out to Demeter USA that “Demeter” is known worldwide as the Biodynamic certifier and not an organic certifier. Stellar Certification Services was born to focus on NOP organic certification. Demeter and Stellar operated as sister companies offering organic and Biodynamic certification with a single inspection.
Around 2008, Demeter launched an initiative to promote certified brands. There was considerable success in the promotion of wines as many wine drinkers were already receptive to the subtle qualities found in Biodynamic wines and Made With Biodynamic Grapes wines. Other products were promoted, and some remain popular like juices, fruit, olive oil, tea, coffee, vinegar, pasta and sauces. The vitality of Biodynamic products is present in all products, and the challenge is to get the public to experience this difference.
In June 2018, Stellar leadership announced the surrender of its accreditation with the NOP and closed its doors. The short notice and midyear timing caused many challenges for those certified. The fall out was severe with about a third (~100) of the certified operations leaving Stellar/Demeter certification over the next couple years. Presently, Demeter strives to offer a single inspection for organic and Biodynamic certification by coordinating with NOP certifiers to use the same inspector whenever possible. Demeter certification can be acquired as a standalone certification – the result is Demeter Certified Biodynamic® (not certified organic).
In 2019, the Demeter Board recognized that a certifier promoting the certified brands was a conflict of interest to be avoided and ended the brand promotion work. The focus shifted to promoting Biodynamic certification and what the certification means. Demeter recognized the void this left for brand promotion and soon began discussions with other biodynamic organizations in the US and globally about how to best promote Biodynamic brands in the marketplace. The Biodynamic Demeter Alliance emerged out of these talks with the goal of equal focus on education, certification, and market promotion along with improving communication between Demeter and the BDA. The latter goal of improving communication was a success! For the former, each focus was to be held respectively by the Biodynamic Association, Demeter Association, and a soon to be launched economic association. This initiative hit many challenges, and an economic association was never launched. Demeter has now sponsored an economic working group with various certified brands to develop a coordinated approach for promotion of Biodynamic in the marketplace.
Over the last decades, Demeter USA maintains relationships with the international Biodynamic certification community through Demeter International, which transformed into the Biodynamic Federation Demeter International in 2020. The mission of BFDI expanded from only overseeing certification to promotion of the biodynamic movement worldwide with inclusion of worldwide biodynamic associations in its membership. The international Biodynamic certification standards are developed within this context. The BFDI member countries gather once a year to consider changes to the international Biodynamic Standards and set the priorities of international promotion. Demeter USA has participated in this process since the 1980’s.
Qualified inspectors are fundamental to Demeter’s task of verifying Biodynamic certification standards. Sometimes farmers step forward to be trained as inspectors. Other times, organic inspectors have an interest in Biodynamics and Demeter USA trains them in the additional Biodynamic requirements. Similar skills and verification processes are used for inspecting organic and Biodynamic farms and processors.
Forty years ago, the entire certification process was paper dependent. Farm and processor documents were mailed to inspectors in boxes. All work was handwritten and mailed back for review by the Demeter staff. Electronic documents were introduced in the mid-2000’s, and email became the courier. Email still serves as a communication tool, but all documents and reporting are now handled within a database with secure, remote connectivity that is updated in real time or can be used offline with automatic syncing when connectivity is restored.
Globally, the biodynamic movement started in 1924 and Demeter certification started in 1928. These were the precursors of the organic movement and organic certification. Demeter USA had its own regenerative organic certification program for many years until 2019 known as Aurora Certified Organic that was farming according to the Biodynamic Standards without use of Biodynamic preparations. More recently, the Demeter Standards were the foundation of the newly formed Regenerative Organic Certification standards that addresses the shortcomings of the national organic standards.
Looking over the multitude of certifications available in the world, Demeter Certified Biodynamic is still the only wholistic certification that addresses the whole picture of our food and textile production. Biodynamic certification is founded on responsible, elevated organic farming practices to produce crops with high nutrition and vitality, preserving and enhancing on-farm biological diversity, livestock integration and humane treatment, maintaining or increasing farm soil carbon, maximizing on-farm fertility regeneration, gentle processing to preserve food vitality and avoidance of ultra-processed foods, social responsibility for workers, responsible packaging of products, and minimizing the carbon foot prints of certified farms and food processors.
This gold standard of farming and food processing is only possible because of the multitude of people in the US and worldwide contributing their work and volunteer hours to hold and preserve the high integrity found in Demeter Certified Biodynamic crops and products. Just as individuals have done in the last 40 years of Demeter, it is ever more important in our increasingly divisive and conflicted world that we imagine the future we want and then step forward with others to make a better today. Here’s looking toward the next 40 years with increasing numbers of thriving Biodynamic farms and a multitude of Biodynamic nutritious foods and textiles available to many people.
