Organic Vs. Natural Vs. Biodynamic

After a heated discussion to define:

• Organic
• Natural
• Bio-dynamic

Wrote to Tony Coturri - perhaps the nation's premier practitioner of Natural wine-making - for a definitive definition -

Properly done, Organic and Bio-dynamic are parallel agricultural methods. Both exclude the use of pesticides, mildcides, fungicides and artificial fertilizers. Cover crops are key to fertility on the farm (in the vineyard.)

The big differences are the Bio-dynamics' preparations. This ia on an objective level. Subjectively, Bio-dynamcs is the promise of Organic.

Organic used to have a notion of community, region and family. But due to the influx of national corporations like Horizon (milk), Walmart (the biggest seller of organic fresh food in the United States) and all the organic foods coming into the US from all over the world; delivering these foods uses more energy than the purported give back.

Bio-dynamics treats the farm as a living thing that should be self-sufficient, all inputs coming from the farm itself, the community and its family orientation.

Natural is a useless word. Its like sustainable. Every farm that stays in business is sustainable; even though any kinds of chemicals can and are used.

Be that as it my, I like to refer to my wines (Coturri) as Natural wines. It conjures up the ideas of proper viticulture, be it Organic and/or Bio-dynamic. The wines should be made without manipulation: no SO2, only natural yeasts, no nutrients to aid fermentation and bottling without filtration.

Comments

[Peter B]

I would think "natural" means that no artificial or over processed ingredients have been added. Is corn syrup a natural sweetener? I think not. That is why I included "over processed" in the above. Perhaps I am being a new age snob. The steps to extract sugar from cane are pretty darn industrial if you ask me. Some where there is a definition that draws the line between health food stuffs preparation and weird science chemical combination.