THE BIODYNAMICS
Biodynamic farming is an agricultural method based on the principles introduced by scholar Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s, aimed at countering the marked decline in the quality of food produced by conventional agriculture, which was caused by the use of chemical fertilisers and industrial-intensive farming methods. Today, it is the most effective agricultural approach for promoting healthy, living farming systems that improve and enrich the soils where it is applied, thereby ensuring the sustainability of farming for the future. It yields fruits that are rich in flavour, genuine nutritional value, and authentically reflect the terroir. After the chemical industry made its way into agricultural science, every natural process was increasingly reduced to a series of chemical reactions. Furthermore, the focus on profit alone led to a fragmentation of agricultural activities as a whole. The biodynamic method, on the other hand, is based on strict adherence to the laws of life, a way of thinking and acting that not only harnesses natural forces but also helps and stimulates nature itself, thanks to an understanding of the vital processes taking place within it. The farm is conceived as an organism, where various parts operate harmoniously with different functions, nourishing and revitalising the living and productive organism. Everything that belongs to the farm and lives within it - soil, domestic animals, cultivated plants, shrubs, ponds and lakes, bird and insect life, other wildlife, local climate, the seasons and their rhythms - all make up a living entity whose parts interact with one another. Under the shaping hand of humans, this organism produces food of exceptional quality. It becomes a CULTURAL product made by humans. Everything that belongs to the farm and lives within it - soil, domestic animals, cultivated plants, shrubs, ponds and lakes, bird and insect life, other wildlife, local climate, the seasons and their rhythms - all make up a living entity whose parts interact with one another. Under the shaping hand of humans, this organism produces food of exceptional quality. It becomes a CULTURAL product made by humans.
PESTICIDES, NO THANKS?
(text from a report by Legambiente, a leading Italian environmental organisation, published on 3 December 2024) The health of rural communities and of all of us, including children, is threatened by synthetic pesticides that are used in cultivated areas and that we may potentially find in the food and beverages we consume.
In 2023, Italian laboratories analysed 139 grape samples.
The results show that 64.03% of the samples contained at least one active substance, with a higher prevalence of multi-residues (44.60%) compared to single residues (19.42%), which were much less frequent.
In this study, fungicides were again found to be the most prevalent class of active substances, with Metalaxyl, Dimethomorph and Boscalid being the most common. As for wine, 228 samples from ARPA, IZS, USL, and ATS were analysed. Among these, there was an
improvement compared to 48.87% in 2022, with 53.07% of the samples showing no residues. However, the percentage of samples with one or more residues remained significant at 46.93%. Also in wines, the most frequently detected active substances were Dimethomorph (38.57%), Boscalid (17.14%) and Metalaxyl (14.28%), indicating a consistent distribution of these residues.
Conclusive scientific evidence shows that exposure to pesticides is a significant additional risk factor for many chronic diseases, various types of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and neonatal diseases. There is also circumstantial evidence linking pesticide exposure to hormonal imbalances and dysfunctions of the immune system. Many synthetic pesticides are persistent and remain in the environment for a long time, exposing us to various chemical cocktails through both the food we consume and our interaction with the environment around us.
CONVENTIONAL WINEMAKING Below are listed the processes and some of the additives (the full list of those allowed would be very long) that can be used, either partially or entirely, in conventional winemaking. HARVESTING: CRUSHING WITH POSSIBLE MUST CORRECTION: FERMENTATION / MACERATION: FIRST RACKING: AT THE END OF THE FERMENTATION: AT THE END OF THE MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION: FILTRATION: AGEING: COLD STABILISATION: DEMETALLISATION: CLARIFICATION WITH: FILTRATION: ELEMENTS ADDED UPON BOTTLING: MICROFILTRATION PASTEURISATION in the case of sweet wines
BIODYNAMIC WINEMAKING HARVEST: FERMENTATION: AGEING: BOTTLING:
