Farmers & Makers: Arizona Muse
Chapter #3: Arizona Muse and her charity DIRT – the 1st to address Biodynamic® farms directly
“DIRT’s mission is to regenerate soil globally in the face of the climate crisis.”
Courtesy Dirt Charity
Today in the Journal, we are delighted to welcome Arizona Muse, an environmentalist and sustainable fashion consultant who, as a Biodynamic evangelist, in 2021 created the first charity focused on helping Biodynamic farms and farmers called DIRT. We first met Arizona at the annual Biodynamic conference in upstate New York back in 2019 and have supported each other ever since!
Dirt is a charity that works to regenerate soil. Regenerating soil is one of the most important actions to be taken in the face of climate change. DIRT regenerates soil through supporting the Biodynamic Farming movement by working directly at the source - Biodynamic farms and farmers. Through her connections she’s made as a successful model, she has an audience with fashion firms and insiders that we hope will join us in spreading the Biodynamic gospel.
We are excited to share with you our conversation, diving into how and why she created DIRT, and her thoughts on Biodynamics as part of the solution to challenging the Climate Crisis.
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M/M: Welcome to Farmers & Makers Arizona! Let’s dive right into it, what drew you to Biodynamics? When were you first exposed to it?
Arizona: I first discovered Biodynamics when I was 10. My family had a weekly veggie box from a Biodynamic farm in Santa Fe called Beneficial Farm. Then I kind of forgot about Biodynamics and didn’t have a lot of contact until later, as an activist, I was educating myself about soil.
M/M: That’s so wonderful you were exposed at such a young age! And what is it about Biodynamics that gets you excited today?
Arizona: The non-physical element. Biodynamics actually farms the life force within the plants and animals and the farmers alongside doing all the good things on the physical realm such as crop rotation, building soil fertility, mobile grazing etc etc.
M/M: And how do you see Biodynamic’s place in the current “Regenerative Agriculture” movement? What role does it currently play?
Courtesy Dirt Charity
Arizona: I see Biodynamics as an umbrella over Regenerative Agriculture, where under this umbrella a farmer can use all the regenerative techniques he/she wishes, and Biodynamics goes beyond this by making the Preparations which are the soil medicines that support the life forces that I mentioned above.
M/M: We feel the same way. Why do you think that Biodynamics hasn’t spread or picked up in the US in the same way that it has in Europe, more specifically in Germany or Switzerland, for example?
Arizona: American’s do have a lot of catching up to do on Biodynamic Agriculture compared to Germany, for example. It’s true, there are over 5000 Demeter certified farms in Germany and the Demeter logo is perceived as mainstream which is amazing. I now sit on the Advisory board and the Economic Sphere of the new Biodynamic Demeter Alliance in the USA. It is the role of this board and the amazing staff within the organization to grow the movement in the USA. Then, through my work with DIRT, the charity I launched in 2021 to support Biodynamic agriculture globally, I am able to work on the same thing in any territory. I love this! It's exhilarating to be part of this movement.
M/M: Turning to fashion, what role can Biodynamics play for the fashion industry? Can it scale to serve a significant portion of fashion’s demand?
Arizona: Absolutely. Currently the Biodynamic movement has seen most success in the food and beverage space but farms are farms and soil is soil. The truth is that most of our fashion and beauty products are grown in the soil, and it could be grown using the Biodynamic Methods. That's why I’m so pleased to use Maison Made!
M/M: And we’re so pleased to have you as a customer! Is Demeter’s certification of Biodynamic important for fashion?
Arizona: Yes, fashion, being an incredibly complex chain of suppliers in almost every country of the world, needs to be able to rely on a piece of paper that guarantees a certain standard.
M/M: Tell us about Dirt! What is your mission with Dirt? How are you achieving your goals?
Arizona: DIRT’s mission is to regenerate soil globally in the face of the climate crisis. We go about achieving this by supporting the Biodynamic Farming movement as Biodynamic compost is an immense accelerator for soil regeneration.
M/M: What is different about Dirt that distinguishes it from other Biodynamic “evangelists”?
Arizona: DIRT works alongside the Biodynamic movement but comes from a different sector. In starting DIRT, my hope was that DIRT could engage many people with Biodynamics who might never have found it otherwise. Like the fashion industry. I’m relieved and excited to say, it’s working!
M/M: That’s wonderful! And where do you see the area of greatest potential to grow the Biodynamic/Regenerative movement? How will Dirt play a role in this?
Courtesy Dirt Charity
Arizona: Policy shift. Right now, you and me and everybody pays, through our taxes, for the deployment of very poor agricultural methods that harm ecosystems, nature at large and humans. We need government money, that comes from citizens, to be shaping a regenerative future for agriculture, globally. We also need localization which will come from a re-jig of processing equipment. For example - leather grown in the US will most likely be semi-tanned at the slaughterhouse with salt and dumped in a shipping container, then, once the container is full of hides, it will be shipped to China or India for tanning, then the tanned leather will arrive back in Italy and get stamped as Italian leather. Not sure I agree it’s actually Italian, do you ?
M/M: Of course not, and that is a good example of how globalization is not automatically a good thing. So can large corporations institute a supply chain that is indeed Biodynamic or regenerative?
Arizona: Yes, particularly for farmed raw materials. Think of it like this: it all comes from soil, no matter what quantity you order, it will all be grown by farmers, many of them smallholder farmers, and then the raw material will be aggregated in order to be processed into a yarn, then a textile, then a dress, for instance. So the answer is at the beginning of all the supply chains and with all the raw materials that will be used across the supply chain - think of dyestuff or bleach that are made from chemicals. Harmful materials like this must urgently be replaced with non toxic, compostable materials that can disappear into waterways or compost piles without causing damage to the micro life within those systems.
M/M: Switching gears slightly, where do YOU shop for food and personal care products?
Arizona: I shop for vegetables at my nearest farms and farmers markets. I shop for meat from the nearest organic or Biodynamic farms and milk too. It seems hard at the beginning, but it's not a huge amount more effort and it’s so worth it. The farmers greatly appreciate the business and I can feel good knowly that the money I spend with them is helping to regenerate their land. For beauty, I don’t have a local hand made source but i look for tiny brands who are doing great things relatively local to me using relatively local ingredients to them. Maison/Made fits the bill perfectly.
M/M: Finally, with the climate crisis already in full swing, what are you seeing that gives you the most hope for the future?
Arizona: Building Community. This is one of the big answers. It's truer than ever that the biggest change comes from within. Great resources for learning more about this are the divine feminine. I know that sounds random, how can the divine feminine be a solution to or even connected to the climate crisis ? You’ll see what I mean once you get started.
(Some of the questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity)