Cameron Vawter
Cameron grew up between Indiana and Sydney Australia. His grandparents were farmers, and he enjoyed his summers baling hay, feeding hogs and chopping firewood. As a young adult, wanderlust introduced him to the wine industry. He quickly fell in love with the art of growing grapes and making wine as well as the community that springs up around it. What followed was a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis and then a 15+ year career working his way to Winemaker for Dana Estates in Napa Valley
Cameron’s daughters began their schooling in the Steiner system and around the same time, he was a founding member of the “BD Kids group” which was a group of fellow winemakers that decided to read Steiner’s lectures on Agriculture. This began a 20-year fascination with and appreciation for BD.
In 2015 Cameron and his family moved aboard their 43ft sailboat and began an adventure, arriving in NZ just before the pandemic. Deciding to stick around, Cameron joined the Seresin team as Vineyard Manager in 2022 with a desire to get his feet more firmly planted in the earth. He is fortunate to have the support of his family and a brilliant team around him that allows him time to help on the Council.
Lara Campbell
Growing up in the Cape in South Africa, Lara spent her free time adventuring, climbing hills and enjoying the great outdoors but being surrounded by a family of scientists, she believed she was destined for engineering.
Moving to New Zealand in 2010, she finished high school in Marlborough and planned to head south to UC, but as the fates would have it, a failed physics exam encouraged her to pursue a career in a field that had far less physics, more chemistry and as much of the outdoors as possible – viticulture & wine!
Her journey in biodynamics and organics began in 2012 when she started pruning for Clos Henri; and under the tutelage of Fabiano Frangi, workshops with Su Hoskins at Seresin and the occasional stir and spray with the community in Marlborough – her interest flourished. Graduating from Lincoln in 2015, she began working at Clos Henri full-time and over the last 13 years, her role at Clos Henri evolved from viticulture to wine and now she heads the sales & marketing for the company.
Lara’s passion for practicing and communicating on biodynamics is fueled by her desire to understand the science behind it and draw many more people into the appreciation of the benefits of BD in our food systems. She is thrilled to be joining the council and cannot wait to be part of moving the BD Association into the next 100 years.
Simon Neal
Simon grew up in Marlborough with a background in farming, which led to working in viticulture after leaving College. After several years, and gaining a tertiary qualification, this employment in the wine industry led to his introduction to Organic/Biodynamic farming when he took up a role with Huia Vineyards in the Summer of 2011/2012 and also a preparations workshop at Seresin Raupo Vineyard. From this moment on, he maintained a curiosity in biodynamics, and began organically growing the home garden.
Simon’s desire to work with Biodynamics took a major leap forward after a very inspiring pre-Christmas biodynamic gathering in December 2020 at Seresin with Su Hoskin and James Milton. In February 2021, Simon moved to Central Otago where I took up a role of Assistant Vineyard Manager with Burn Cottage Vineyards – a long standing producer of fine wines fully involved in biodynamic farming practice.
Now working with Peregrine Wines in their Bendigo vineyards who are just starting down a journey of Biodynamics, he looks forward to being involved in this journey in seasons to come. Simon also now actively applies biodynamic practices in the home garden, and he hope to improve on this with time.
With a diversity of experience, the heart, passion and drive for taking biodynamics forward and natural farming systems he is over the moon to be nominated to sit on the council of Biodynamics NZ and loves nothing more than helping others see the light of working with nature rather than against it.
I have three children; a Step daughter 25, and two boys 11 and 13 and happily married to my wife Vicky of 15years.
Murray Cook
Murray grew up in Australia’s Central Coast on a lifestyle block with parents (especially a mother), who passionately advocated for organics and instilled a strong belief in natural methods of gardening, and health remedies. It was this start to life that later flowed to pursuing a career in organic winegrowing. Biodynamics was often discussed in the world of wine and it was a brief encounter of some of the methods and lunar calendar workings in Burgundy in 2006 that triggered curiosity into biodynamics. Tasting some of the world’s great wines often revealed biodynamics were behind many of them.
When Murray and his wife, Rachael, purchased their own property in Marlborough in 2017, the land was immediately introduced to the preparations. They planted and established their own small vineyard in 2018, employing biodynamic methods from establishment. Since then, they’ve embarked on making their own 500 and CPP and the compost preparations with the help of the great people in the Marlborough Biodynamic group.
It’s the connectivity to the wonderful people in the BD community that has strengthened the desire to travel down this path.
Bridget Henderson
The current chair for BDNZ, Bridget has been involved with biodynamics for over 20 years, having been first introduced to it at Shelly Beach Farm (the Pearce’s farm) in South Head, where she ended up living and working for a number of years.
Bridget is still currently based in Southhead, on a smaller farm certified organic with Organic Farm NZ. She is the regional chairperson for OFNZ and as part of her role, Bridget has been running a programme of workshops and field days to encourage the use of organic practices. Bridgets interest and enthusiasm for BD has had a resurgence of late and she has started running BD workshops and holding 500 stirs etc.
Bridget believes in a practical approach when it comes to sharing BD ideas and she is interested in finding ways to talk about BD and connect others with it in a meaningful way.
James Millton
When James was seven, he wanted to grow vegetables. When he was 14, he wanted to ferment fruits and at 21, James was in Europe learning traditional winegrowing from the masters.
In 1984 James helped establish The Millton Vineyards and Winery in Gisborne, New Zealand which went on to become the first certified organic and biodynamic winegrower in New Zealand and within the first 10 biodynamic winegrowers in the world. James helped write the certified organic wine standards for New Zealand and was early into Demeter certified winegrowing. He is a member of Le Renaissance des Appellations, a collaborative group of international winegrowers and the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum.
James has now given away his 45 years in the practical world and now lives in Marlborough where he is involved in mentoring biodynamic and anthroposophical activities throughout the land. An opportunity which James finds very rewarding.
James offered his time to be on the biodynamic council to join an enthusiastic group of volunteers and assist, as best he can, with renewed vigour the requirements, enjoyment and good intentions of the biodynamic work on this land as a key solution to calm the changing climate.
Biodynamics New Zealand Team
- Jayne Craig secretary@biodynamic.org.nz
- Jo Hayes operations@biodynamic.org.nz
- Annabelle Koopman (Demeter Secretary)
demeter@biodynamic.org.nz