From Wines To Main Course, Farm Challenges Are Universal

Earth Day 2025, arrives amidst a world of multiple risks: for the second consecutive year, global temperatures were at their highest since record-keeping started in 1880. Extreme weather – from drought to floods to snow and ice and baking heat – continues to stun communities and nations globally. Earth’s average surface temperature in 2024 was the warmest on record, according to an analysis led by NASA scientists. U.S. consumer confidence tumbled to its lowest level in four years. Dow Market data shows the Dow headed for its worst performance since 1932. And war continues to rage in the Middle East and Europe.

It’s a work-out for the people tending to the literal “earth,” farmers, who live their vision, take the punches and evangelize through good and sales. “Every day is Earth Day,” says Farmer Lee Jones at The Chef’s Garden. “I think that way about Christmas, Easter and the religious holidays. I think that way about nature, especially in the spring. To see the renewal, hope for a new year and ideas and starting over: we get that reset every year.”

In Huron, Ohio, on the banks of Lake Erie, the Jones family has been modeling regenerative farming for more than 30 years. In the early 1980’s, the family business was laid low by erratic climate, poor agricultural practices, and the financial pressures of competition with big agriculture. Lee and his brother Bob Jones went back to the drawing board, committing to restore the soil naturally, take chemicals out of the mix as much as possible, diversify products and promote seasonal consumption of what the land is ready to offer.

“Because we can have asparagus 12 months a year doesn’t mean that we should,” Lee told me, as he headed out to his fields where workers are now planting peas, lettuce, carrot, beets, turnips, spinach radishes, “things that tolerate cooler weather.” His daily challenge is to persuade the buying public, from distributors to chefs, to consumers, that these natural foods, grown the right way and consumed over time, will take the place of medicine. He believes it’s been catching on but it feels like it will take forever. “There is a whole subculture of people more seasonally sensitive, so chefs are doing a better job of thinking seasonally.”

Half a world away, Stephen Cronk is committing himself every day to the same goals. His product is primarily wine, produced in Provence under the Domaine Mirabeau label. His now 50-acre vineyard in Cotignac was a dream project he and wife Jeany launched in 2019. The brand is known in several countries for its Rosés. Cronk is passionate about soil restoration, co-founding the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation (RVF), a UK-based global charity that supports wine producers wishing to farm regeneratively.

Cronk works with growers in his region, currently through 14 village cooperatives, around Provence, each one with multiple growers. “They’re farming the land and bringing their grapes to the village cooperative every fall, and I then taste the wines and buy various types of finished wines from them. They do the fermentations there, in the villages.” Cronk explained that “every one of our wines comes from multiple cooperatives. It’s like creating a perfume.” His overarching effort to expand regenerative farming practices to as many growers as possible is delivering results. “I’ve been working with them to get them to farm regeneratively and I’ve just certified seven of them ‘regenerative’ as well,” says Cronk. Due to that certification, he says “I’m now selling a crisp new wine called ‘One Day by Mirabeau’ – because one day, all vineyards will be farmed this way. This is the future.” The product is sold currently at Whole Foods UK for the equivalent of $25 US. “One Day” also has been officially preferred by Virgin Atlantic and served on their flights.

The cost to produce is slightly higher, Cronk says. “We’re calling it a nature premium. I’m paying a premium to my farmers to grow it this way. I’m paying them more, for their fruit, their wine, because I want to farm in a nature-positive way.” Cronk says he’s banking on more and more consumers deciding “I’d rather buy a brand that’s doing good, than a brand that makes me look good.”

Cronk has been feverish about soil restoration and its importance to humanity. His estate, Domaine Mirabeau is now a B Corp wine estate and was the first vineyard in France to earn the credential Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC™). He believes like there’s real momentum growing in farming toward regenerative practices. He’s hoping the excitement of that momentum will grab consumers and retailers to support businesses that respect the planet the way mindful farmers do.

Back in Huron, Ohio, Lee Jones speaks as a survivor of the multiple vagaries of the weather and the marketplace. “In the Springtime, every year,” he muses, “we get a reset. Farmers are the most optimistic people.”