Davis Food Co-op Food Issues
Cork Wine Closures | "One Farm at a Time"
Why Pick Cork for Wine Closures?
By Doug Walter
Many vintners take positive steps that improve local soil fertility. But did you know that the choice of bottle closure can make a big difference for the environment? Cork, which can be harvested sustainably, helps maintains an ecosystem that guards soils against erosion, preserves fertility and some diversity, and supports wildlife. Natural cork closures are fully biodegradable, and can be recycled into useful products.
But a vintner might use another closure for valid reasons. I wouldn't uniformly disdain wines — such as those from Yolo County's Berryessa Gap — that use screwcaps to preserve the “just as bottled” taste. Plastic “corks” aren't my favorites, but they're a means of cutting packaging costs. However, a wine with potential to improve with age will benefit from a natural cork closure.
Skilled harvesters produce quality cork by sustainable cutting, in which the entire bark layer is stripped from the cork oak trees. If it's done well, it all grows back! Cork can only be harvested from the oaks about once a decade, but the benefits of the forest landscape are continuous. Several endangered species are dependent on cork oak forests, which “support one of the highest levels of biodiversity among forest habitats” according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Wine stoppers are the most important product of cork oak forests. When you buy wines with natural cork stoppers, you’re helping trees, wildlife and people.
Sources
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/cork_rev12_print.pdf (p. 4)
http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/wine_stopper.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7623912.stm
http://thegreenpages.ca/portal/on/2007/12/cork_the_latest_renewable_reso/
"One Farm at a Time"
Preserving local agricultural land
The Davis Food Co-op is working with farmers, other co-ops, land trusts, and people like you to make sure that California farmers don't get priced out of the market for farm land. In the video below, Jeff Main of Good Humus Produce in the Capay Valley of Yolo County describes a strategy of adding stipulations to conservation easements, in order to assure that farmers can and will live on their land.
"Each generation builds on the past generation" — quite a vision for a future of farming!
If you are interested in supporting "One Farm at a Time" with a donation, please send a check to Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation at this address:
Davis Food Co-op
Attn: Twin Pines/OFaaT
716 Sixth Street
Davis, CA 95616