• As any self respecting grape grower we have a natural urge towards protecting our capital "terroir" by the minimal use of artefacts but the paradoxes in this debate are great and solutions do not appear obvious to me. I believe that neither camp has the monopoly of reason at present and we have to work together to find solutions before the destruction is irreversible.
• On one side the blind irresponsible practices for financial interests that benefit the pharmaceuticals (merchants of poisons) that are now going on to the use of the genetic engineering on the vines and yeast. Check out this on their resistance to REACH http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/france/press/reports/lobby-toxique.pdf
  
• On the other side is a philosophical mystical system of the narrow minded which is to me not the answer to scientism. To make a refusal of all the molecules of synthesis as the primal rule does not make sense, as they are not all antagonistic to the nature! One does not solve complex problems by simple answers.

• Chemical Framing		Organic/Bio Framing
  Generalised	Reasoned	Bio	Bio-dynamique
  Preventative coverage	Traitment when sick	Contact	Information/Life force
  All synthetic chemicals	All synthetic chemicals	Copper &Sulpher	Copper Sulpher & Preperations

  
  1. Weeding
• Herbicides are a source of major pollution of the soils, rivers, and water. They kill the soils. They were promoted by the giant chemical industry to make colossal profits.
• The ploughing, which was preceded by grubbing or deforestation if you like, which was the first phase of the destruction of the soils by erosion. This technique has a tendency to make water supply to the vine too readily available hence larger rotten crops.
  2. Protection against fungal diseases
• Chemical molecules of synthesis intended to destroy micro-organisms such as mildew which can destroy whole crops of grapes. So they provided a better production of the grapes, and with it protected the livelihoods of the grape growers. However these molecules have serious consequences on man and environment, with the side effect of resistance.
• All the historic spraying of the mildew with copper, is simply because at the time they did not have anything else. And today, all the analyses of soils of the blocks sprayed with copper show exorbitant copper concentrations, a phyto-toxic poison.

In my vines:

• The most important is good tasty wines from ripe grapes by low yields, Quality and the nature are an affair of heart. Therefore we maintain a close contact to our vines. The next move is to practical and innovative bio-research.
  Weeding
• We have grassed down the vineyard and it is our intention to work the ground under the vines to avoid using herbicides. (more complicated than it seems) The principal behind this is to control the vigour of my vines to help them in the ripening of the grapes at the same time the grass prevents erosion and compaction.
  Fertilizers
• We have not put any chemical fertilizers on the soils since 1997 and the vines are still well in balance even if the grape must is short in nitrogen for problemless fermentations.
  Insecticides
• We use two “insecticides” per year that are a legal requirement to eradicate a noteifiable bug golden flaveronce in both cases the least toxic possible or “bio”, Bacillus thurigensis
  Protection against fungal diseases
• We are looking at biodynamic farming but do not want to closeted by a system and if in conjunction we can incorporate clean synthetic molecules (that do not effect or leave residues in the man, environment or the grape) why not!
• The essential is to get to picking date, without grapes that have any defects and can not be picked by machine. As we have a low sale price for our wines that does not support hand picking and sorting.

What is Biodynmics

This I found on the internet which is one point of view" "

• If you're not familiar with biodynamics, the best way to think of it would be as a magic spell cast over an entire farm. Biodynamics sees an entire farm as a single organism, with something that they call a life force. Believers say that this life force can be increased, thus improving crop quality and health, by following conventional organic methods plus the application of a special magical potion. The potion is not intended to have any direct physical effect — its intent is to charge up the life force of the farm. The word biodynamic literally means life force, according to its Greek roots bio and dyn.
• Rudolf Steiner was a philosopher, a multi-faceted artist, a playwright, and a self-described clairvoyant. He gave a series of eight lectures in Germany in 1924, which became the essential bible of biodynamics. To Steiner's credit, he always insisted that his students test everything he said and not take it at face value; but to his detriment, he did no testing of his own, but rather described the methods to be followed based only on his own inspiration. Steiner's eight lectures are available on the Internet, and if you're curious you should look them up and read them. They start with some conventional sounding discussion of soil chemistry and nutrients, but then devolve into a progressively more vague lecture about non-physical beings and elemental forces.
• This comes directly from a prominent biodynamics web site, so this is their description, not mine. The potion consists of nine ingredients (or preparations, as Steiner described them), numbered 500 through 508. Here are their descriptions and the instructions:
• 500: A humus mixture prepared by stuffing cow manure into the horn of a cow and buried into the ground, 40-60 cm below the surface, in the autumn and left to decompose during the winter.
  501: Crushed powdered quartz prepared by stuffing it into a horn of a cow and buried into the ground in spring and taken out in autumn. It can be mixed with 500 but usually prepared on its own (mixture of 1 tablespoon of quartz powder to 250 litres of water) The mixture is sprayed under very low pressure over the crop during the wet season. It should be sprayed on an overcast day.
• Both 500 and 501 are used on fields by stirring the contents of a horn in 40-60 litres of water for an hour and whirling it in different directions every second minute.
• 502: Yarrow blossoms stuffed into urinary bladders from Red Deer, placed in the sun during summer, buried in earth during winter and retrieved in the spring.
  503: Chamomile blossoms stuffed into small intestines from cattle buried in humus-rich earth in the autumn and retrieved in the spring.
  504: Stinging nettle plants in full bloom stuffed together underground surrounded on all sides by peat for a year.
  505: Oak bark chopped in small pieces, placed inside the skull of a domesticated animal, surrounded by peat and buried in earth in a place where lots of rain water runs by.
  506: Dandelion flowers stuffed into the peritoneum of cattle and buried in earth during winter and retrieved in the spring.
  507: Valerian flowers extracted into water.
  508: Horsetail.
• One to three grams (a teaspoon) of each preparation is added to a dung heap by digging 50 cm deep holes with a distance of 2 meters from each other, except for the 507 preparation, which is stirred into 5 litres of water and sprayed over the entire compost surface. All preparations are thus used in homeopathic quantities, and the only intent is to strengthen the life forces of the farm.
• Notice that the potion is applied to the compost in the ratio of one sixteenth of an ounce per ten tons of compost. Biodynamicists describe this as a homeopathic amount, which means diluted to virtually undetectable levels, which certainly applies in this case. But again, the potion is not intended to have any direct physical effect. It's there to stimulate the life force. I was not able to find any proposals describing what the mechanism for this effect is alleged to be, or exactly what the effect is, other than the vague phrase "strengthen the life force."
• If you're wondering why cows' horns figure so prominently in the potion, this explanation comes from one of Steiner's lectures:
• The cow has horns in order to reflect inwards the astral and etheric formative forces, which then penetrate right into the metabolic system so that increased activity in the digestive organism arises by reason of this radiation from horns and hoofs.
• Remember, Steiner encourages you to test this scientifically. All you'll need is an astral and etheric formative force gauge. I think they have them at Radio Shack.
• I'm not persuaded by the anecdotal evidence either. What you'll usually hear from biodynamicists is something like "I know it sounds weird, but the fact is the wines are actually better, and that's an undeniable difference that you can taste." I'm sure there actually is a difference that you can taste. No two wines ever taste alike. Grapes from every vineyard in the world taste different, and grapes from the same vineyard taste different each successive year. That's why there are good vintages and bad vintages. Any experienced vintner making the same wine from the same grapes in the same vineyard will easily be able to tell you which vintage a given bottle is from. Whether the growing method changed from conventional to organic to biodynamic or to anything else, the next batch of wine must taste different. That's a fact of winemaking. If ever there was a science where a valid controlled trial was absolutely impossible, it's winemaking. Anecdotal reports that wine quality improved after the farm became biodynamic can't be given any credence. Not only is "improved" a completely subjective matter of opinion that will differ among all wine drinkers, but any chromatographic analysis of the chemical content of the wine must be different year after year, whether the vineyard cast a magic spell over their compost or not. Neither any actual effect nor any causal relationship can be evidenced.
• Which way do you fall over this fence of ying and yang, for Bio of not plaese let me know with your comments by e-mail, I am intrested in your point of view.
• Mail me ?

Some great links to under stand more:

• Bio suisse
• http://www.bio-suisse.ch/ Information on the association
  FiBL [Research Institute of Organic Agriculture]
• http://www.fibl.org/english/index.php the official website of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland, Germany and Austria
  International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements
• http://www.ifoam.org/index.html - IFOAM's mission is leading, uniting and assisting the organic movement in its full diversity.Our goal is the worldwide adoption of ecologically, socially and economically sound systems that are based on the principles of Organic Agriculture.
  ECOCERT International
• http://www.ecocert.com/ an inspection and certification body
  PROMETERRE -
• http://www.prometerre.com/ a service to all lovers of nature
• My good friend with out whom I would not ask these questions

BioDYVIN.

• http://www.biodyvin.com Le SIVCBD est une association regroupant des vignerons engagés dans la culture bio-dynamique sur l'ensemble de leur Domaine, certifiés sous le label BIODYVIN (contrôlé par ECO CERT sas FRANCE ) et participants à des travaux de recherches sur la biodynamie.
  Organic Inputs Evaluation
• http://www.organicinputs.org/ is to develop recommendations for harmonized and standardized procedures for the evaluation of plant protection products, as well as for fertilizers and soil conditioners .
  CODEX ALIMENTARIUS

• http://www.codexalimentarius.net/ to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice
  e-phy
• http://e-phy.agriculture.gouv.fr/ Le catalogue des produits phytopharmaceutiques et de leurs usages des matières fertilisantes et des supports de culture homologués en France
• Greenpeace
• http://www.greenpeace.org their wock on toxins.