Farmer leading by example

"Somebody once said to me that organic farming is really just yesterday's and tomorrow's agriculture," muses Coal River Valley wine producer Tony Scherer. "And you know, they're right. That's all it is. It's just that somewhere in between there was a period of about 50 years where we kinda lost our way."

They're hardly words you can build a revolution on. Then again, revolution doesn't count for much, Scherer says. He's into evolution instead – stuff that's down-to-earth; practical; sustainable.

Scherer is chairperson of the 11-member group appointed last April to advise Primary Industries, Water and Environment Minister Bryan Green on how to best develop the industry in Tasmania. 

An organic pioneer in his native California, he's had 30 years' experience of agriculture on two continents. In each situation, he says farming without synthetic chemical additives was once regarded as the domain of crackpots and hippies. Today, it's not only acquired much of the respectability of conventional agriculture, it boasts some of the smartest innovators in the business.

It also has growth rates of economic activity in Australia that are among the highest in the country, with earnings worth around $250m each year. In the US, it's doing even better. There, the organic food and beverage market is the fastest growing sector of the total food market, consistently recording annual increases of between 20 percent and 25 percent over the past decade.

Scherer says change is an essential part of farm life. The rapid rise and fall of organochlorins and products such as DDT provide convincing evidence that the soil is the only universal constant in agriculture. Its health is critical to any venture based on the land.

The absence of artificial fertilisers and pesticides on his 28ha Frogmore Creek Vineyard just outside Richmond is no barrier to productivity. Indeed, it's more than compensated by the continual renewal of organic matter and the encouragement of beneficial microbes and mini-beasts.

Of paramount importance is a soil fertility program Scherer set up in 1999. It utilises a biologically active compost made from a host of ingredients, including straw, animal manure, winery grape wastes, natural rock minerals, and vegetable and fish waste.

Regular brewings of a compost tea are sprayed onto vines to increase soil nutrition and decrease disease pressure. Crimson clover, oats, grasses and legumes planted between vineyard rows are periodically slashed and worked back into the earth. 

Above ground, mechanical weeders clear around vines, while roving detachments of guinea fowl keep down all manner of bugs and hoppers during growing and ripening seasons.

When vintage approaches, workers carry out leaf-plucking and operate the high-capacity blowers used to dry leaves and sulphur-dust vines after unwanted summer and autumn showers.

Shaped by his on-going experiences, the views Scherer puts forward today are fundamentally the same as they were in the 1970s, yet they also show a healthy pragmatism that earns respect from friends and foe alike.

His wines are made by conventional methods using organically grown fruit. Small additions of sulphur in the winery may prevent them from being marketed as organic wines, but Scherer believes there's no way he can afford to compromise on quality.

"People can't be expected to buy them just because they're organic. They have to be persuaded to buy them because they're good," he says.

"Everything we do can be backed up by scientific evidence. But it's not enough for the organic movement to simply go out and criticise. What's needed is for us to lead by example - to go out and farm, to get good yields, and produce a quality product."

There's no preaching from the pulpit; no attempts to quash discussion when contrary opinions are raised. Ultimately, people can take or leave his ideas, Scherer adds.

"All I'm saying is that organics is just another farming system. If you're happy with what you're doing, don't change. For me, it's a system I happen to be very comfortable with."

First published November 2004: Tasmanian Farmer