Brian Wickert has been engaged in farming his whole life. Growing up with seven siblings on a conventional corn and hog farm in small-town Indiana, he participated in 4-H and later studied Agriculture Economics at Purdue University. Passionate about teamwork and communication, he then worked in sales and marketing in a variety of industries across New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Washington.

Brian and his wife Patty moved to Viroqua, Wisconsin in the summer of 1995. They spent their early days there volunteering and building community at the burgeoning Viroqua Food Co-op, spending countless hours running the cash register and stocking shelves; eventually, Brian joined the long-range planning committee, helping to guide the Co-op’s further growth and development. Their two sons attended the Waldorf school from kindergarten through the 12th grade, with Brian working as an administrator there for three of those years. Their now-grown sons live close by, allowing Brian and Patty to spend lots of time with their five grandchildren.

Over the past three decades, Brian has been highly involved in biodynamic farming as a producer and aggregator of organic vegetables, working closely with numerous local Amish farmers, Organic Valley, as well as both Hy-Vee and Indy Foods. Since 2008, he has worked as a member of the Fellowship of Preparation Makers, a national service organization that works to provide and improve biodynamic education and products nationwide. Brian’s passion for biodynamics also guides his current efforts to create a digital database of internationally available biodynamic products to foster broader access.

In 2024, he noted that biodynamics involves a refreshingly different way of looking at agricultural economics:

“We want to make sure everybody in the supply chain makes money. So, we’re concerned about the guy below us, as well as the guy above us in the supply chain…. In the economic realm, we’re concerned about how everybody’s making a living.”

Brian is also passionate about quality food and advocacy. In 2009, he was part of efforts to get legislation passed in Wisconsin for the legal sale of raw milk. Although this grassroots effort eventually failed after an eight-year pursuit, the process allowed him to gain insight and deeper understanding for the nature and structure of legislation, and ultimately led him to pursue additional legislative advocacy.

Currently, Brian volunteers with Free Wisconsin, working with state legislators to prevent the implementation of programmable currency. Free Wisconsin is inspired by Catherine’s and Solari’s work to raise awareness about the digital control grid and the need for programmable money guardrails.

Catherine has visited Viroqua—which not coincidentally has one of the country’s densest concentrations of organic farms and which does not fluoridate its water—three years in a row because Brian has done such an amazing job of bringing people together and organizing for real change.