Green practices discussed at potato conference

KENNEWICK, Wash. — Mendocino County, Calif.-based vintner Paul Dolan spoke to about 120 potato growers Tuesday about the journey he took to run a winery in an environmentally, socially-conscious manner and still produce great wine.

“I’m concerned about the environmental issues we’re facing on the planet,” he said to the audience at the Washington State Potato Conference in Kennewick. “I know you are too.”

His “awakening” occurred about 20 years ago, when he realized grapes in a nonorganic vineyard tasted “flat and insipid.”

He noted the significant different in the taste of the grapes three years after converting to organic crops.

Dolan said he realized the pesticides he was using were killing the microbial life in the soil.

When health and vitality was brought to the soil, the vines were able to respond, he explained.

He also was concerned about the chemicals’ path and if they were traveling downstream to a watershed.

“I realized I was part of a much larger system,” Dolan said. “We started to look at and evaluate what we were doing and if we could change the way we operated our business.”

Dolan said he knew he wanted to live a life of integrity and make a difference. He considered leaving winemaking to become a doctor.

At the time, the company he was working for decided to sell and the new owner asked him to run the company.

So he took the company leaders on a retreat in the Redwoods for two or three days where they discussed and debated how to run the company.

They wanted to make sure everything they did benefited the employees, supported the communities in which they did business and protected the environment, he said.

In the mid 1980s, the company realized there was little relationship between wine and food in the U.S.

They built a 5-acre organic garden to grow fruits, vegetables and edible flowers. Chefs from around the world were invited to experience flavors from the garden.

Dolan said he made the connection that converting vineyards to organic crops could produce excellent wine.

The company produced a brand called Bonterra (“good earth”) and found there was treeless paper for packaging and unbleached white cardboard.

He also detailed the company’s other conservation efforts, including using green power, implementing natural materials for a new building, reducing landfill use, installing solar power pumps and converting gas-powered vehicles to biofuel.

They had a competitive advantage, as no one was implementing such measures at the time, he claimed.

“Most of this was low-hanging fruit,” he said.

They grew the business by 15 percent and profits at a much greater rate, he added.

After Dolan’s talk, Chris Voigt, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, spoke of the challenges of addressing sustainability with staple crops such as potatoes.

In response to a grower’s earlier comment suggesting elitism, Voigt said potatoes aren’t quite the elitist product wine is.

Voigt said growers in the state haven’t gone down Dolan’s road of using unbleached cardboard, but they are doing “some very meaningful things.”

Currently used center pivots use less water, he noted. There are also low pressure drop nozzles and soil moisture probes connected to satellites, he said.

Some growers have switched to variable rate motors for pumps and using fans in potato cold storage facilities.

The commission is helping growers manage pests with fewer pesticides by providing free pheromone-laced traps to catch insects, he explained.

Dolan’s talk was intended to stimulate growers’ thinking, so they can consider incorporating new ideas, Voigt said.