ramping up to meet today’s demand. The gamble may fail but if it gives you an unique market, that may be enough to keep food on the table. If you have achieved a reputation for a particular style of wine and the market is stable there’s no need to risk it, but never stop producing small batches of avant garde wines. Once in a while, one of them may catch fire. Sustainable operation of a vineyard and winery has no absolute standard and has no end point. There is no status quo to be maintained. There are no black and white rules to say that adoption or rejection will make you forever sustainable, as there are with (say) organic or biodynamic practices. Sustainable practices touch all aspects of your business: farming, winemaking, your community, and your financial sustainability. You cannot ignore any of these and hope that sustainable practices of the others will be enough in the long term. This has created a problem for organizations that attempt to create certification programs for sustainable practices. If you are going to the expense and effort of continually


improving your practices to conserve energy, conserve water, improve soils, and be a good citizen in your community, shouldn’t you receive some recognition? It isn’t as simple as not using toxic sprays. Organic and biodynamic practices may or may not be sustainable.


In France, the use of copper-based fungicides, typically accepted in organic viticulture, have caused an unacceptable increase of copper in the soils and are now recognized as unsustainable.


Sustainability is a moving target. Organic and biodynamic practices can be an important part of sustainable practices, but there is much more to consider.


In our world of rapid change, a farm or a company must always evolve. Everything is reinvented. Even the practices of a decade or two ago now seem old fashioned. It’s been a long time since the Mount Albert and Bethesda Telephone Company was swallowed up by Bell. Its technology wasn’t sustainable.


British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Summer 2016


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