David Griffiths calls himself a child of the seventies. He went to college at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he realized that he was a better farmer than student. His next stop was Emerson College in England, where he studied biodynamic agriculture and the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, an early twentieth century Austrian philosopher, scientist, educator, and mystic. Steiner’s insights guided him to form a variety of systems, including Waldorf Schools and a form of organic farming known as biodynamics.

After his stint at Emerson, David returned to California and earned a bachelor’s degree in soil science. He worked at several large conventionally managed farms in California to gain additional farming experience. Eventually David had his fill of chemically based farms and called his friend Edie, whom he had met at Emerson. She invited him to join her and work at the Hawthorne Valley Farm, a Steiner community in New York. David didn’t see himself as a dairy farmer, but Edie’s charm persuaded him to join her at Hawthorne Valley. It wasn’t long before they were married, and shortly after they moved to Kimberton Farms, owned by the Kimberton Waldorf School.

The farm was producing buckets of milk and losing buckets of money. Edie and David leased the farm (renaming it Seven Stars Farm) and purchased the equipment and began producing and selling organic bottled milk at a small store located in the milk processing plant. While the store’s sales of natural foods flourished, demand for bottled milk was flat.

This problem inspired them to begin a new milk processing venture—making organic yogurt. Seven Stars Organic Yogurt was introduced to the natural foods market in 1990, and before long it was a profitable venture. An important piece of this success was the connections the couple had made with natural foods wholesalers while running the retail store. This enabled them to gain widespread distribution of their yogurt in a relatively short period. The popularity of their organic yogurt, the unprofitability of the milk-bottling business, and the growth of the retail store led them to shut down the bulky milk-bottling process. By 1994, the retail store had outgrown its space and, under new ownership, moved to its current location in a Phoenixville retail district.

For the first ten years that Seven Stars grew, David and Edie improved their yogurt making and distribution systems as they went along. Then in 2000 a large round bale of hay fell on David, and the accident left him a quadriplegic. The Kimberton community came together to support David and Edie and the continuation of their business. Friends organized a communitywide effort to retrofit the farmhouse so that David could continue to live there. In the four-month period that David was in the hospital, a 1,000-square-foot addition was built using primarily volunteer labor. David no longer can do the physical tasks of dairy farming, but he still can help with the task of managing Seven Stars Farm.

Since 2000, Seven Stars has continued to experience slow, consistent growth. By 2006 the company had $1.4 million in revenues, eight full-time employees, and four to six part-time workers. David and Edie are providing high-quality organic yogurt to their community and much of the Eastern United States, while making a living dairy farming in suburbia. But they are doing much more—they are making major contributions to their community and its environment.

The Seven Stars contribution to the ecosystem begins with the term “biodynamic agriculture,” a system developed in 1926 that predates organic farming by twenty years or more. Biodynamic agriculture is a system of caring for the land and raising animals or crops based on a spiritual philosophy that has proven practical benefits but is sometimes difficult to explain. Biodynamic farmers view the farm as a complete organism within which nutrients are recycled. David and Edie view their business and the environment as one and the same; they can’t distinguish between the two. Doing something that would damage the environment would be unthinkable since it would simultaneously damage their business. Partnering with the environment to improve the community is integral to their spiritual values and their philosophy of doing business.

At Seven Stars the cows are respected and cared for. They are allowed to graze and are outdoors most of the day and night seven months of the year and are outdoors at least part of the day during the five cold months. David and Edie farm in a way that allows the cattle to live naturally and symbiotically with the land.

Seven Stars rotates the fields for grazing, a process that is good not only for the cows and their milk but also for the land. Keeping meadows alive with a stable grass cover all year round prevents soil erosion and contributes to the ecosystem in other ways as well.

Seven Stars also is a living laboratory for the children in the community. The farm is located directly across the street from the Kimberton Waldorf School, and every student knows Edie and David and loves visiting the cows and learning about farming. If you visit the Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, area you’ll see hillsides that were once fertile farmland covered with new subdivisions or brown scars of land that have been graded for home construction. Seven Stars has preserved its land as open space, a major victory for the environment in these times of suburban sprawl.

Despite the standard challenges of managing a farm and a business, competition from corporate agribusiness, and personal physical challenges, David and Edie built a profitable dairy farm and yogurt business that is in a spiritual and commercial partnership with the local environment and the cultural life of the Kimberton community. In this process they’ve kept acres of land as open space, provided well-paying jobs for community residents, offered hands-on education for hundreds of children, and produced healthy and delicious yogurt made from the milk of humanely treated cows.

From Growing Local Value, by Laury Hammel and Gun Denhart, Berrett-Koehler, 2007.