1.2: Elizabeth Whitlow

08/21/23 • 35 min

Soil to Soul by Bonterra Organic Estates

Soil to Soul: Farming, Food, Wine, and our Collective Future is brought to you by Bonterra Organic Estates, dedicated to exploring diverse voices and perspectives as they relate to farming, food, wine, and the collective future we’re working to build. Soil to Soul is hosted by Jess Baum, Bonterra’s Senior Director of Regenerative Impact.

Today’s guest is Elizabeth Whitlow, the Executive Director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance. Elizabeth’s role at ROA is the culmination of over 20 years working in the field of organic agriculture. She began her career as an advocate for organic coffee growers in Central America. Since then, Elizabeth has worked across the spectrum of elevated certifications, both in farming and ranching, earning high-level placements with organizations such as CCOF and EarthClaims.

Listen in as Jess and Elizabeth discuss the evolution of regenerative organic certification, the joys of smelling soil, and how regenerative organic agriculture is farming in service of life and transforming the world one farm at a time. In this episode, Elizabeth mentions that we’re nearing one million Regenerative Organic certified acres world-wide, and on August 8, the Regenerative Organic Alliance announced that the one-million acre milestone had been surpassed, a major accomplishment done in less than five years.

Today’s episode mentions Paul Dolan, a leader in the organic wine movement who passed away on June 26. We honor Paul’s contributions to the field, and are grateful for the many ways he touched our lives.

To learn more about us and what we do, visit bonterra.com.

In an unaired segment, Elizabeth read Jess a few lines from The Mad Farmer Poems, a book by Wendell Berry. She has always especially loved this line: "I like the world of nature, despite its mortal dangers."

To learn more about us and what we do, visit bonterra.com.

Previous Episode

1.1: Jess Baum and Joseph Brinkley

This is the series premiere of Soil to Soul: Farming, Food, Wine, and our Collective Future. This podcast is brought to you by Bonterra Organic Estates, dedicated to exploring diverse voices and perspectives as they relate to farming, food, wine, memory, and the connections we all share. Soil to Soul is hosted by Jess Baum, Bonterra’s Senior Director of Regenerative Impact.

For our very first episode, we start with an interview between host Jess Baum and me, Elizabeth Archer, the producer of Soil to Soul.

Jess is the Senior Director of Regenerative Impact at Bonterra Organic Estates, where she steers the company’s overarching sustainability strategy and planning with a holistic eye. In addition to leading the winery’s efforts to reduce energy, waste, water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions, she also works to advance the social aspects of sustainability, and engage employees and consumers in the regenerative revolution through creative storytelling and empowered connection.

Under Jess’s guidance, Bonterra Organic Estates has achieved Regenerative Organic Certification, been recertified as a B Corp, and has secured Climate Neutral certification for the Bonterra brand. Jess spearheaded the company’s formal commitment to the Science-Based Targets initiative, and helped to launch an employee engagement group called the B Squad.

Jess chose to join the wine industry because of its enormous potential to positively impact our environment, saying, “Wine is a beautiful and perfect vehicle to change the world.”

After the segment with Jess, we interview our first-ever guest, Joseph Brinkley. Joseph is the Director of Regenerative Organic Development at Bonterra Organic Estates, where he is instrumental in shaping and driving policy positions on climate-smart farming and business practices. Joseph is also a recognized speaker and panelist, and frequently advocates for climate action and healthy soils legislation in California and Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Ceres Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy Network’s Healthy Soils Working Group, and in 2023 was awarded the Ceres BICEP Climate Smart Agriculture Groundbreaker Award.

Listen in as Jess and Joseph discuss his path to biodynamic and regenerative viticulture, the interdependence of all living things and the systems we have created, and the importance of advocating for change to those systems to benefit us all. If you listen closely, you’ll hear the birds outside Joseph’s window on his homestead farm in Virginia.

To learn more about us and what we do, visit bonterra.com.

Next Episode

1.3: Tim Greiner

Soil to Soul: Farming, Food, Wine, and our Collective Future is dedicated to exploring diverse voices and perspectives as they relate to farming, food, wine, and the collective future we’re working to build. Soil to Soul is brought to you by Bonterra Organic Estates and is hosted by Jess Baum, Bonterra’s Senior Director of Regenerative Impact.

Today’s guest is Tim Greiner, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Pure Strategies, a consulting company that has created sustainability goals and solutions for many clients including Stonyfield Farm, Ben and Jerry's, Walmart, The North Face, and Seventh Generation. Like Bonterra Organic Estates, Pure Strategies is also a B Corporation, and is celebrating its 25th year in business. Tim is a co-founder of the Chemical Footprint Project and has guided sustainable chemicals management strategies for companies across diverse industries. He has also led regenerative agriculture projects with food brands and retailers. We'll talk about Tim's wealth of knowledge and experience in the sustainability field, including how he got started all those years ago and what has kept him going ever since.

Today’s episode doesn’t focus on food and wine, but it’s an excellent conversation we are sure you’ll enjoy. Listen in as Jess and Tim discuss the evolution of preventing pollution, the pitfalls of waiting for the data to catch up, and the benefits of belonging to the B Corp community.