Organic" WAS conventional, in that it was just-the-way-things-were-done, up until about a half century ago when chemical companies began calling on farmers (I interviewed one of the patriarchs of California agriculture recently, and he was the one who turned on that lightbulb for me. Main | Hearty Burgundy at Sanford? Do check it out.

In conferences dominated by scientists, biodynamics in particular provokes sneers, but Jose Ramon Lissarague a professor of viticulture in Madrid said he agreed. In any relationship, man and grape or man and man (or woman) if you force a situation, more often than not viticultural or emotional disaster follows. That seems obvious.