Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Ledbetter saw part of the reason for wanting to fund regionally
focused research and outreach was because leading growers in the region
had come to the conclusion that sustainable pest management was the
wave of the future: “Farmers are consumers, too. We get our food from
the same supermarkets everyone else does. We drink the same water and
breathe the same air. We have children and we can read. That's all it
takes to make me want to look for alternatives to pesticides.”
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The Lodi
Woodbridge Winegrape Commission began its IPM program in 1992 to
“identify and implement sustainable strategies that will reduce conven-
tional pesticide and fertility inputs while maintaining or improving the
grower's net income.”
9
The commission's five-point plan included using
cover crops, improving soil health, monitoring for pests, pulling leaves
to improve grape quality and reduce the risk of grape disease, and using
the least hazardous and disruptive means of pest control. This program
assumed that implementation of these practices would require address-
ing all those who participated in shaping decisions about a farming
system: the grower, the professional entomologist, and the winery. Pest-
control consultants would need to focus on monitoring the entire insect
complex, not just pests, and the commission worked with wineries to
help them clearly define acceptable pest damage levels so that growers
would spray only when necessary to protect the quality of the winegrape
flavor and not for cosmetic reasons.
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In 1995, Cliff Ohmart took over leadership of the IPM initiative.
Ohmart had received a PhD in entomology at UC Berkeley in 1978 from
the same department where Pat Weddle had trained and Stephen Welter
taught. He strengthened the IPM program in quantity and quality.
Ohmart obtained a grant from SAREP to integrate the grower-to-grower
outreach model first developed by BIOS into the commission's organiza-
tional structure and identity. For demonstration vineyards, Ohmart
selected 43 growers who put up the original seed money to start the
commission, and they owned or managed more than half of the district's
vineyard acres.
Leading growers fully bought into this outreach model, and were
able to take advantage of the existing social relations among the 650
growers in the district. During the late 1990s, growers already familiar
with IPM approaches applied those techniques more consistently
throughout their vineyards, and those new to IPM were exposed to
