Demeter, the U.S. certifier for Biodynamic® agriculture and products, today joined with Salmon-Safe, one of the nation’s leading regional eco-labels, in a new partnership to enhance water quality protection and wildlife habitat restoration on Biodynamic farms. The collaboration was announced to an audience of Biodynamic growers at the National Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa, California.
“We think it’s a great complement to Biodynamic certification,” said Jim Fullmer, co-director of Demeter. “Working with Salmon-Safe is a way for us to bring a strengthened, science-based focus on watershed impact to Biodynamic certification. Since Demeter’s vision is to heal our planet through agriculture, and our farmers have an abiding commitment to continually improve their stewardship of area streams and waterways, the Salmon-Safe partnership is a great way to ensure that we are all doing the very best we can to achieve these shared goals.”
Winegrowers in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, including Cooper Mountain and Brick House, have long carried both Salmon-Safe and Biodynamic certifications and these environmentally innovative growers inspired the standards integration. Demeter certification now includes all of the requirements of Salmon-Safe certification.
“Biodynamic farmers are leading the way to a healthier and more environmentally progressive agriculture,” said Dan Kent, Salmon-Safe executive director. “By incorporating Biodynamic practices as the foundation for a farming system that is anchored in the conservation of our watersheds, we hope to advance ecologically sustainable agriculture nationally.”
Demeter and Salmon-Safe jointly developed the new overlay to the Biodynamic standard by comparing Salmon-Safe’s certification program with the U.S. Biodynamic farm standard. The enhanced standard includes additional riparian area management and judicious irrigation water use requirements that were either not covered, or were covered only indirectly, under Biodynamic certification. For Biodynamic growers, Salmon-Safe requirements are now embedded in the Demeter certification standards and will be required for ongoing certification. West Coast Biodynamic growers will have the ability to use the Salmon-Safe label in sales and marketing efforts.
Barbara Gross, marketing director for Oregon’s Biodynamic Cooper Mountain Vineyards, said, “After years of separately seeking Salmon-Safe and Biodynamic certification, we’re happy to see a fast track to joint certification. We also know our consumers appreciate that our farming practices help conserve our local Tualatin River watershed; Salmon-Safe helps us deliver that message.”
“We’ve seen that both the Salmon-Safe and Biodynamic messages resonate in the consumer marketplace,” said Toni Ketrenos, wine buyer for New Seasons Market, the Oregon-based neighborhood grocery stores. “We anticipate that our shoppers will be delighted to see the labels side-by-side on their favorite wines.”
