Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
to get contracts with wineries, easier to stabilize their relationships with
wineries, and the long-term trend in their grape prices is stable or rising.
Most American agriculture operates under the assumption that increas-
ing yields is the only way to maintain profitability. California winegrape
growers in general and Lodi growers in particular have developed a
contrary strategy that has greater promise for the future of American
farming.
Lodi growers and their commission undertook quality enhancement
initiatives simultaneously in product and production. They were fortu-
nate to grow a crop that lends itself more easily to adding value through
quality improvement, and they invested considerably in re-orienting their
production toward quality. Their location just east of the Sacramento
Delta means they face continuous, close scrutiny of their practices and
impacts on water quality, but they were able to take advantage of the
cool breezes to grow improved quality winegrapes. The growers, Cliff
Ohmart, and the commission staff have now addressed sustainability in
both environmental and economic terms for more than 12 years. They
developed the longest running, most comprehensive social learning effort
in recent California agriculture, circulating agroecological knowledge
through farm to growers to consultants to their organization, and ulti-
mately to the public. Linking environmental and product quality has
been essential to the Lodi partnership's success, but their most important
strategy has been to facilitate active exchange of knowledge among all
participants, including regulatory agencies, wineries, consumers, and the
public at large. They have done this by building a highly sophisticated
network that fosters social learning.
This chapter describes how partnerships have coupled knowledge
about agroecological strategies and practices with economic incentives.
This topic has documented how alternative, agroecological initiatives
can make genuine progress toward environmental resource conservation
goals, more than any other approach. But as Latour reminds us, this kind
of alternative science must be well represented to the public, and the
public's support must ultimately be enrolled to support this kind of
hybrid economic/ecologic project. The Lodi winegrape has developed the
agroecological partnership model more fully than any other effort.
Winegrape growers have several distinct advantages that growers of
other crops lack, but their model of collaboration and practical, applied
