righteous farming

Yeah about $10,000

The former is a mix of pseudoscience and astrology. The latter has some credibility as it seeks to minimise the use of pesticides and fungicides.

Just to be clear, the former is based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, who combined various historically based agricultural practices with his own astrological explanations. The latter is based on the IFOAM standards and certification, which have mostly amounted to elimination of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture.

Although most people I know dismiss various aspects of biodynamie as woo-woo pseudoscience, it is also true that many of my favorite producers do follow biodynamic practices. From my conversations with them, it seems that the prevailing attitude is "it doesn't do any harm, and I like the way my wines turn out using it."

Underlying both approaches is the idea of soil health and biodynamic practices do more for soil health than most of the organic certifications do. For instance, you can be organic and still do machine harvesting and tilling of the fields, resulting in soil compression. Additionally, a lot of organic agriculture merely substitutes "natural" fertilizer (animal dung) and pesticides (marigold extract) for chemical equivalents and it's not entirely clear how much benefit is derived from this substitution.

As we've learned more about what's going in the soil, it's clear that mycorrhizomal health is an integral part of vine health so it makes sense to do as little as possible to root structure and mycorrhizae.

Mark Lipton

While I agree with the approach, I find the $10,000 charge that Demeter charges to use the designation fairly outrageous.

But had, apparently, never been on a farm when he formulated them.

True nuff, Larry. But you don't have to be Demeter-certified to practice biodynamics, so few of my favorite producers are.

Mark Lipton

Late to this, but (I think like Mark) I regard some of the practices as hooey, and recognize Steiner's flaws. Yet a significant percentage of my favorite producers do Bio-D, and I'm ok with that.

True, but many are certified.

I appreciate biodynamic farming just not thrilled with the Demeter certification.

And if they believe even half of Steiner's teachings, they are also certifiable!