Green on the Vine
Despite widespread use of pesticides in agriculture, one winery is bucking the trend and remaining organic
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Pesticides and wine. Most people don’t usually think about those two things together. Yet, if you like to go to wineries in Sonoma County, Calif., maybe you should. Sonoma County agriculturists are among the highest users of pesticides of any North Coast county in California, according to an October 1999 report in The (Santa Rosa, Calif.) Press Democrat. One grower in the wine business, Michael Topolos of Topolos Organic Winery in Forestville, said that’s not the way it should be.
“It comes down to the Golden Rule,” said Topolos. “Treat the land as you would treat yourself.” To Topolos, that means wineries don’t necessarily have to use pesticides, which have a potential health risk, to make great wine.
Topolos Winery is located on 23 acres between Forestville and Sebastopol along Highway 116. A visit to the winery lets a person get beyond the daily tensions related to the suburban sprawl sadly overtaking much of Sonoma County. From the winery, one can still hear the cars on the highway, a sound of modern times that is hard to escape. Still, Topolos Winery manages to feel like the country, not just wine country.
Michael Topolos sounds a lot like one would expect of a typical Sonoma County wine grower. As Topolos said, the winery is home to a fine Greek restaurant, a 118-year-old farmhouse, vineyards and all the “phases of the moon, the stars, the birds and the bees that each season brings.” Topolos’ organic winery operates on the principle of biodynamic farming.
Biodynamic farming is a kind of organic farming developed in the 1920s by Rudolf Steiner, originator of the alternative education process now referred to as “Waldorf Schools.” The biodynamic approach seeks to restore the balance between land and industry. Topolos uses “companion planting” (planting different kinds of crops together instead of just one kind at a time), intensive composting and homeopathic sprays to produce several varieties of wine, including his “Eco-Zinfindel,” “Bat-Flight White” (after the bats that live on the land) and others.
Non-organic farming, according to Topolos, means monoculture — one kind of plant is grown per field. With so many of the same kinds of plants grown together, bugs have more of an opportunity to destroy a certain crop they particularly like to eat. In part because of this, pesticides are needed to maintain profits. But, according to Topolos, if different kinds of plants are put together, farmers are better able to protect their crops.
“Monoculture is no culture,” said Topolos. “It’s just sick.”
Wineries in Sonoma County range from those that are strictly organic, to those that try to use carefully-selected pesticides in very limited quantities, according to Dr. James Stewart, a professor in Environmental Studies and Planning at Sonoma State University. Stewart said there are also those that are not as sensitive or selective in their pesticide applications.
Topolos’ family operation began in 1978 when Michael and his brother, Jerry Topolos, got the idea to start an organic winery, “with my brains and his money,” Michael said.
Since then they have been working the land with a mix of hard labor, ingenuity and “lots of prayer,” said Topolos. Although he characterizes his faith in the land as one based in a personal brand of spirituality, Topolos likes to point out that there are at least 158 references to wine in the Bible. What good Sonoma County vintner wouldn’t find that connection?
Dalila Boussaid, a hospitality staffperson in the tasting room at Topolos, said the atmosphere there is very relaxed. “Everyone is really down to earth here,” said Boussaid, “you can really learn a lot.”
And what about controlling the birds and bees that do show up on organic wineries?
“They don’t drink much,” said the entrepreneur Topolos jokingly.
Sharing the land with all of the “earth’s beings” is what profit is all about, according to Topolos. Topolos said, “We save money doing the right thing. Pesticide application is a huge expense.” Topolos added, “We do make a profit. We know that we will not be successful unless we have a high quality product.”
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Dr. Elizabeth Burch is a journalism professor at Sonoma State University.
The model for a
zero-pollution business
Michigan organic beer producer combines
profit and environmental responsibility
An organic microbrewery in Ann Arbor is trying to demonstrate that environmental sustainability equals financial sustainability for any business by operating one of the only “zero-pollution” breweries in the country.
Leopold Brothers of Ann Arbor uses only organic ingredients to brew its beer and has found ways to cut back the energy it uses and the amount of waste it produces, focusing on pollution prevention first.
“We do this because it’s what we believe in,” said Scott Leopold, an environmental engineer by trade, who started the microbrewery with his brother in 1999.
Besides finding ways to reduce the amount of wastewater it produces during the brewing process — about a 10-fold decrease so far — what water is left over goes to an on-site hydroponics greenhouse to nourish fruits and herbs.
The brewery also recaptures heat from the boiling process, using it to heat water for cleaning, and sends all its solid waste — the spent grains — to a local farmer for livestock feed.
The packaging of bottled beer also represents a segment of the market where improvement is needed, according to Leopold.
They have begun putting six-packs in corrugated cardboard boxes, rather than wax paper board that is not as easily recycled, and use only vegetable-based inks for labeling. Six-packs are shipped on cardboard flats instead of cases, reducing cardboard consumption by 65 percent. Finally, a vegetable-based adhesive is sprayed over the cases instead of using shrink-wrap to hold the cases together on pallets for shipping.
Leopold Brothers is in the top 10 in beer production in Michigan, according to Leopold. Last year they sold about 500 barrels — more than 27,000 six-packs — and this year they expect to double that figure.
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