Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
says that they have been able to achieve what Napa and Sonoma have
not because his growers have remained unified (Sonoma's efforts to
organize a marketing order were not successful, and Napa growers have
not brought it to a vote). Rather than resisting scrutiny, they want to
look at data. Unlike most growers, they want to circulate knowledge.
Lodi growers have actively engaged partnership activities. Leading
growers in the Lodi Woodbridge Winegrape Commission have carried
forward the entrepreneurial tradition of California agricultural capital-
ists, but incorporating improved quality and environmental concerns
into their business model. Some of the larger growers have planted new
vineyards while simultaneously buying out or assuming management of
lands belonging to others. John Ledbetter began with 2,500 acres in the
late 1970s. In the early 1990s, his family-owned corporation managed
4,000 acres in Lodi and Sonoma, and it now manages 11,000 acres of
vineyards throughout the state. John Kautz started with 12 acres in
1948, but his family farming corporation now manages 5,000, plus a
winery in the Sierra foothill town of Murphy. Randy Lange inherited 150
acres in the late 1970s, now owns 1,500, and manages a total of 6,500.
Lange sees himself as born into a transitional generation of farming in
California, a “back to the future” period. He does not want to be
organic, nor does he see himself able to farm without agrochemicals, but
he does want to run his operations with the least amount of disturbance
in his vineyard and the least impact possible on resources. This approach
flows from his expressed belief that this is the right thing to do. These
growers gambled that expanding their operation and improving the mar-
ketability of their grapes would be successful. They constitute a small
number of growers, but when they speak in favor of the commission's
programs, they have great credibility among their peers.
Lange believes that Lodi growers have become accustomed to sharing
sensitive information, and they are now more interested in improving as
growers. The commission's partnership activities have provided critical
knowledge but also social support for incorporating “sustainability”
into how they evaluate their farming systems. Lange described how
“scary” it was at the beginning to evaluate his operation—knowing that
he would be sharing some of that information with others—but insists
this is the critical beginning for making a transition toward sustainabil-
ity. He believes that when Lodi growers have shared information they
