The term “organic” is cropping up more and more when it comes to food and drink production in the 21st Century. It demands a cleaner and a non-chemically grown product. But how does this affect wine production and can there be such a thing as a wine company who can produce truly organic wine and stay in business?

As the organic movement grows, there is pressure from environmentalists and increasingly choosy customers to know exactly what goes into their food and drink before they purchase it. Organic wines have previously been accused of being dull, and most of the worlds “best” wines have long been produced in a far from organic way.

The place to start when talking about organic wine is to decide exactly what the term “organic” means to you.

Organic wine is made without the use of synthetic fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides or fungicides. It is also vacant of artificial preservatives or colourings, which may be added to non-organic varieties.

But why go organic? It is thought that many of our foodstuffs have been tainted with chemical build up through the use of non-natural pesticides or fertilisers on the plants they grow and that your body could be affected by consuming them. The build-up of these chemicals, it is claimed by environmentalists, have the potential to cause long-term health problems or could contribute to developing allergies. There is also the question of chemicals from treated crops going into the ground and ending up in drinking water, an issue that has already led to many changes in general crop production and water treatment.

Most commercial crops are grown with the use of fertilisers and other chemicals who kill things that can harm the crop. Continued use of these chemicals can weaken the soil and start to upset the eco-system in the ground. They also lead to some pests developing a tolerance to them which encourages the further development and use of stronger chemicals and further builds up chemicals in the product itself.

The alternative to all this is to grow plants organically. Organic farming is a more time consuming method of production and needs time to replenish the natural eco-system too. Setting up an organic farm means taking time to tackle weeds by hand, encouraging natural predators of pests who frequent the vineyard, and where this does not work, finding other ways of tackling the many organisms that harm crops. Fertilizer will be compost or animal manure, and a system of planting flowers and herbs to create biological diversity has to be included in an organic vineyard.

Vineyards face an additional problem mildew and black rot. These are diseases that can ruin a crop and in some cases destroy a whole vineyard. This makes growing organic vines very difficult in regions where there is a lot of humidity. Therefore organic production is most common in hot dry regions where fungal infections are less likely, and where extra labour can more easily be afforded.

To be able to sell as an organic vineyard, the organisation has to be recognised by one of the official certification bodies across the world.

This write-up will give you a quick overview of bagasse and bagasse compostable food packaging. We will then discuss a few brief reasons outlining why we support using bagasse biodegradable food containers.

Bagasse Synopsis – Bagasse, if you don’t already know, is a discarded off shoot of the sugarcane manufacturing process. Basically, sugar cane as soon as it’s taken to a manufacturing facility to be refined, is squeezed for its juice and the remaining fibrous material is bagasse. Bagasse has typically just been dumped in the trash or it has been used as a fuel in some manufacturing facilities to power the sugarcane production process; but regrettably, as a result of being employed as a fuel, it emits some contaminants into the natural environment.

Today, bagasse is being made into biodegradable food service ware. Listed here are several quick reasons explaining why we’re fans of bagasse biodegradable plates & food containers.

#1 – Sustainable. Bagasse is derived from sugar cane which happens to be an annually renewable resource. Sugarcane matures incredibly rapidly and by using it in biodegradable bowls & compostable food packaging you are keeping it from either being discarded or being employed as an energy source which will emit toxins into the natural environment.

#2 – If you’ve ever touched a bagasse biodegradable food container before or if you have gotten a good look at a bagasse product, you’ll have observed that the product has a very natural appearance. Biodegradable bowls made from bagasse are textured and the products really do look very natural. This aspect is crucial especially when bagasse food packaging products land up in commercial composting centers (which is a key component of taking advantage of the environmental benefits of bagasse). If they are deposited in those composting facilities, it is quite easy to determine that the biodegradable bowl was made from bagasse, that it does belong in a municipal composting facility, that it’s going to compost, and that it should not be removed from that composting center.

#3 – The third reason why we’re big supporters of bagasse is quite frankly the quality of the containers. Bagasse biodegradable food containers are very tough. They are quite sturdy and certainly one of the best things about them as well is that they hold up to temperatures north of 150 degrees fahrenheit very well. You can place very hot chili into a bagasse container; in fact you can put a variety of hot food or liquids in bagasse and you’re going to get a tiny bit of sweat beneath the product, but otherwise it is going to look after that heated food very well.

And so, that is our summary of bagasse and bagasse food containers.