Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/602988
32 WINES&VINES December 2015 VINEYARD VIEW winery practices, they published and imple- mented the California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing. Soon after, self-assessment workbooks were developed by the Washington Wine Grape Growers (VineWise) and by the Cornell University Cooperative Extension for the New York wine industry (VineBalance). The U.S. wine industry also has developed consumer-facing ecolabel programs, most of which focus on sustainable winegrowing prac- tices. Several operate in California, and there is one in Oregon and another in New York. So why the editorials criticizing the wine industry for not being sustainable and ad- versely changing the nature of local communi- ties? One clue is the hyperbole used by the authors to make their points. Some examples are: "Grape farming is predicated on killing all organisms and keeping them that way—dead. Poison nematodes, poison weeds, poison birds, poison critters." "The wine industry has not ever wanted to solve environmental problems that it causes." "They use green wash, ag wash, hog wash, until the issues go away." "Nearly all the leading wine producers in California are massive corporations integrated with 'Big Alcohol'—multinational conglomer- ates promoting and controlling politics in Sac- ramento and Washington, D.C." These authors discount the positive impact of sustainable winegrowing programs and claim that true sustainability is only found in small, family-owned businesses. The text in- dicates more of a not-so-thinly veiled agenda than an attempt to have a conversation about sustainable winegrowing. It's a form of NIMBY-ism that seems to be in line with the Washington Post op-ed I cited with the atten- tion-grabbing title, "Why Everyone Who Is Sure About a Food Philosophy Is Wrong." The author's basic point is that people cannot have reasonable debates about the various ap- proaches to farming because their agendas prevent them from doing so. He used the term "philosophy of food production" and stressed that we all need to admit that food is a con- stant tug of war between people and planet. He stated, "We can't feed ourselves without doing environmental harm." So what do I take away from all of this? I think it is much easier to look over the fence and criticize what someone else is doing than to take a look at one's own actions and ask if they need improvement—and if so, how? Dur- ing my career, the self-assessment workbook is the most powerful tool I have encountered that a farmer can use to bring about change in a farming operation. By using it, farmers are looking at their own deficiencies rather than those of others. It is like looking into a mirror. Some things we like to see, others not so much. What is great about farming is that if we see things we don't like, we can do something about them. I am convinced there are always improvements to be made no matter whether one's farming is classified as conventional, organic, Biodynamic or sustainable. To make my point, let's take a few moments and look into the self-assessment mirror. If you irrigate your vineyard, do you track how much water you use in each block, each year, to es- tablish a benchmark that you can try to im- prove upon? If you use drip irrigation, when was the last time you measured distribution uniformity? Do you track how much energy you expend in fuel in each vineyard and track that figure from year to year in order to see where improvements can be made? Do you base your vine nutrition on a budgeting process where you determine vine nutrient demand and then calculate the amount of nutrients to apply, taking into account what the soil pro- vides, what is removed by the crop and what is added via irrigation water? Do you know the moisture-holding capacity of the soil in the vineyard and use that knowledge in irrigation scheduling? Do you know how many gallons of water it takes to make a gallon of wine? When was the last time you got your employees together and discussed the business's vision and their role in realizing that vision? If you have a consultant that handles your pest, fertil- ity and/or irrigation management, do you just follow the consultant's directions, or do you engage in a dialogue about what the consultant is seeing, doing about it and why? When was the last time you met with a financial advisor to discuss the performance of your business and look for ways to improve economic performance? I am sure you are doing many of the things mentioned in the previous paragraph, but I doubt any of you are doing all of them. Farming is not rocket science; it is harder. There are so many things to consider simultaneously. One thing that hasn't changed since I wrote my first Wines & Vines column about sustainable viti- culture 17 years ago is my opinion that the best way to view sustainable farming is as a con- tinuum, from less sustainable on one end to more sustainable on the other. Grapegrowers and winemakers are distributed along this con- tinuum, with some implementing fewer sus- tainable practices and others more. The goal is not to feel superior to others on the con- tinuum or to try and make other growers or winemakers do what we think they should do, but to move ourselves along it to a higher level of sustainability. Cliff Ohmart, Ph.D., is vice president of professional services for SureHarvest and author of "View from the Vineyard: A practical guide to sustainable wine grape growing." Previously he served as research/IPM director at the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission. He has been writing about sustainable winegrowing issues for Wines & Vines since 1998. Using a reservoir for irrigation and tracking water levels are both good sustainability practices. Establishing soil moisture-holding capacity will help create an irrigation schedule. GEORGE ROSE, WINE INSTITUTE