Let’s take a trip to the state of Washington in the US. You know Washington… it’s that place where it rains so much on the coast that vampires can live there year round. It’s a land for volcano connoisseurs. Its largest city was named for a man commonly known as Chief Seattle, a leader of the Duwamish and Suquamish peoples, who is thought to have said:
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
As well as:
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”
Here are some wine statistics about Washington state: it’s the second largest producer of winegrapes in the US after California. It also has the second most organic vineyards after California.
But the organic acreage basically didn’t increase much over the 10 year period from 2005-2015, while the total vineyard acreage increased from 54,000 to 70,000 acres… meaning the percentage of organic vineyards dropped by over half a percentage from 3.7 to 3.1 percent. Washington has such an incredible climate for growing grapes organically that the only commercial no-spray vinifera vineyard in the world that I’m aware of – Paradisos Del Sol - is in Washington, yet the percentage of organic vineyards is unchanging to decreasing.
Meanwhile just across the border, Oregon has a greater percentage of biodynamic vineyards than Washington has organic, and Oregon’s percentage of organic vineyards is the highest in the US… all while Oregon’s main wine growing regions in the Willamette Valley are rainier and largely growing varieties of vinifera that are some of the most sensitive to mildews and rots.
So what does this tell us? This tells us that choosing to farm organically, biodynamically, regeneratively or better is not a matter of what is possible. It IS possible. It’s a matter of deciding to do it. It’s a matter of choice. How do we get people to choose better farming? There are a lot of answers to that, but I think many of them involve establishing trust by listening, including them in our community, trying to understand them genuinely without ulterior motives… or, if I had to express this in one word, love.
For this episode we are visiting one of the only organic and biodynamic certified wineries in Washington State: Hedges Family Estate. My guests are Sarah Hedges Goedhart, the Director of Winemaking and Winery Operations, and Reid Wilson, the Vineyard Manager. Hedges sounds like a fascinating place. A biodynamic family winery with around 110 acres and a honest to god Chateau in the Red Mountain AVA.
I hope I’ve set up that what they are doing is pretty special in their region, and Sarah and Reid have the passion and excitement to match the work. They bring up some of the less talked about aspects of biodynamics, including the responsibilities of farmers with regard to their employees. This led me to look up the Biodynamic Farm Standard for Demeter US. Read the Environmental Statement. Read the Biodynamic Principle of Social Responsibility. Cow horns are sexy, I guess, if you’re into that kind of thing, but there are some substantive elements to biodynamics that are often overlooked or completely ignored. While some of these principles, like the social responsibility guidelines, seem to be little more than values statements, at least they create a culture that gives attention to them. Try this on for size:
“Agricultural land occupies 50% of the earth’s habitable surface, about 41% of U.S. land. In the U.S., food production contributes 34% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Concerns of climate change cannot be successfully addressed without addressing agriculture’s contribution to it but, conversely, agriculture can be a potent solution. Because the underlying theme of the Biodynamic Farm Standard is to generate inputs out of the life of the farm system itself rather than importing them from outside, the heart of a Biodynamic farm’s fertility system is the sequestering and recycling of carbon… Demeter’s vision is to heal the planet through agriculture.”
Does this force me to abide by certain rules or else? No. But it sounds like a culture, and agri-culture, that I’d like to be part of.
This conversation is full of juicy moments, but one that sticks out to me is when Reid says, and I’m paraphrasing, I want the land to remember me in a way that it’s almost like it has forgotten me.
