Paul is a neighbor of ours here in northern California, and he’s been called the grandfather of biodynamics and a pioneer of organic agricultural. Along with his two sons, Paul runs and manages their family farming operations and wineries in Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California.
He is chairman of the board for Demeter USA, an biodynamic certification organization committed to aligning leading biodynamic farmers with progressive retailers in order to develop consumer driven brands and products.
As a 4th generation winemaker (and, later, president) at Fetzer Vineyards, Paul helped oversee its transition from a small family-owned winery to realizing his vision for Fetzer"...to be recognized as the environmentally, and socially conscious winery, committed to making the highest quality, best valued wines in the world."
He served on the boards of the Wine Institute and Business for Social Responsibility. He participated on President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Business, The Climate Group and he chaired the California Sustainable Alliance Board and the California Wine Institute.He is a founder of Wine Vision which resulted in the world's first self-assessment guide to sustainable business practices. Paul co- authored the book " True to Our Roots- Fermenting a Business Revolution.”
Paul currently advocates for the creation of a new contextual framework for farming- a shift from the current industrial model to a regenerative system designed to build resilience and vitality into the farm.
So, enjoy this conversation between Paul and Jib here at our office in Healdsburg, California.
About our 22nd Century Leadership podcast:
Our current social and economic systems were designed in and for a different time. Namely the 19th and 20th centuries. A time when there was a lot less people changing life on earth a lot slower and less systematically. Today, each day we add approximately 200,000 new humans to the 7+ billion people occupying our beautiful blue orb floating through space. Add to this the addition of tech innovations associated with machine learning, DNA manipulation, and flash stock trading, and we are living in the midst of a volatile cocktail that has manifest in unusual politics and a broad sense of dissatisfaction.
For the last 15 years we’ve worked with CEOs, corporations, non-profits, foundations, and even a city, on taking action to build long-term resilience and sustainability in light of these trends. Along the way, I’ve met a lot of interesting people engaged in what I’ve come to call the act of History Making. These are leaders who are actively transforming the way that human beings ‘see the world.’ Known examples are people like Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Desmond Tutu. In our case, we are going to focus this podcast on a subset of these History Makers. Namely, leaders who are actively working to help people appreciate the beauty, utility and fundamental necessity of a healthy environment to a thriving human economy and existence.
These 22nd century leaders are applying the best of human leadership capabilities to successfully helping their fellow humans through the what is sure to be a very turbulent transition from an economics built for 19th century realities to a society and economics built for 22nd century realities.