Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
other partnerships, but they have the broadest and most sophisticated
understanding of sustainability.
In 1984, seeking to conduct community outreach and education for
their industry, local winegrape growers founded the Sonoma County
Grape Growers Association. In the 1990s, land-use battles spread from
Napa County to Sonoma County, and in the later part of the decade the
Sonoma County Grape Growers Association began to recognize the need
for a partnership approach to educating growers.
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In 1999, the organi-
zation hired Nick Frey as its executive director. The association's board
hired Frey to help market winegrapes, but they knew they also needed to
address their neighbors' concerns about environmental impacts. Frey
had “a hunch that people realized that there were some issues out there.
. . . We could probably do some things better, and too, we were going to
be under closer scrutiny, but I would guess that they underestimated . . .
the scrutiny and the timing of it, by like an order of magnitude, because
in the fall of '99, it just exploded in the papers, this 'terrible problem'
with the vineyards, and we were problems for every kind of issue you
could imagine, pesticides just being one of them.”
The crisis of public perception provided a powerful motivation for
these growers to collectively demonstrate their environmental values to
neighbors and consumers. Many have felt wronged by complaints about
their vineyard practices, and are motivated to disprove critics. The
grower John Clendenan said: “Traditionally the farmer had the full say
over what happened on his land, and that picture's changing really fast.
And so it was very important to us to present a positive light on what we
did. We were perceived as the 'green desert,' and then there were partic-
ular hot points that we've started to be attacked, viciously attacked on,
usually sprays, methyl bromide use, certain pesticide use.”
Frey launched an IPM committee in 2000; later it was renamed the
Sustainable Practices Committee. The association has been unsuccessful
in obtaining a BIFS grant but has received FQPA monies from the
USEPA. It has compensated for its limited funding by facilitating active
participation by many growers and PCAs. Because the Sonoma County
Grape Growers Association has had to rely on social resources, this part-
nership has strengthened the capacity of its parent organization, and
added value to the organization in the eyes of its member growers.
Leading growers in the Sonoma winegrape partnership have been
particularly active in outreach to other, less environmentally oriented
