Give Up Beer (Unless It's Organic)

Organic beers are widely available, from both microbreweries and big distributors... and choosing organic beer could help, of all things, wild salmon. Here's why.

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By The Daily Green Staff

If you're going to be celebrating St. Patrick's Day, or any day,, give an organic beer a try.

Here are two good reasons: It's good for the environment, and organic beer represents the latest wave of the craft brewery movement. In other words, beer lovers will love the taste. The national organic scene grew out of the microbrewery craze and has only picked up steam since its birth about a decade ago, with brands like Wolaver's, Butte Creek Brewing Co., Eel River Brewing Co. and Goose Island Brewery leading the field.

The nation's big beer companies have also recently gone organic — causing some controversy in the organic brew community — with their Green Valley Brewing Co. and Crooked Creek Brewing Co. (Anheuser-Busch) and Henry Weinhard's Organic Amber (Miller) labels.

Many hops growers, particularly since the 1997 outbreak of the downy mildew fungus, have relied on the use of fungicides to maintain their crops. Hops are also typically grown with heavy use of chemical fertilizer. With 77 percent of the country's hop crop grown in the Yakima Valley in Washington, one of the watersheds important for endangered steelhead, any reduction in fertilizer and pesticide runoff can't be a bad thing for wild Pacific salmon.

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