Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Breyer plays a central role in the outreach efforts of this partnership. She
explains information to growers in a non-threatening, non-technical
way, and comes across as something of a low-key biologist/mentor. She
convenes PCA breakfasts monthly during the growing season, and helps
identify pest trends, approaches to monitoring, and new products. This
is the only partnership to use an independent PCA to conduct outreach
to other PCAs, and this has been a very effective strategy for using the
USEPA funds it has received. Members of the management team describe
their local field days with the following terms: learning by interaction;
providing positive peer pressure; motivating growers to look good in
front of the group; bringing new eyes on old problems; and raising the
bar for other growers. These events provide a space for growers to
engage each other.
In both Napa and Sonoma, collective action was necessary to address
crises in public perception. Leading growers and vineyard managers rec-
ognized that the winegrape industry is vulnerable to public perception,
and that they could only make progress in addressing this problem by
changing the image collectively. Winegrape growers think of themselves
as producing a crop in a particular place, and to address the crisis in pub-
lic perception, the collective producers had to take action to address the
concerns of local residents. Both Northern California winegrape partner-
ships provide platforms for leading growers to enroll others in their
vision of agriculture, but they have chosen divergent network designs:
the Napa partnership is an informal association, and the Sonoma County
Winegrape Growers Association has expanded its service to its members,
and leveraged increased growers' participation for its mission.
Local versus Statewide Winegrape Networks
In the early 1990s, the Robert Mondavi Winery launched an initiative to
enhance the quality of wines made in the Central Coast region. This
evolved into the Central Coast Vineyard Team. Even though this grow-
ing region is geographically large and spatially dispersed, most vineyard
management decisions are concentrated in a relatively small number of
growers, vineyard managers, and industry leaders who have worked
together over several years (these are all represented in the sociogram by
“growers”). Wineries exert more control over this region than other pre-
