Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/629061
36 WINES&VINES February 2016 VINEYARD VIEW TTB LABEL APPROVALS Low per-label costs Gov't. Liaison Negotiations or Footwork Reasonable Hourly Rates TRADEMARK SEARCHES As Low as $185 Your trade names or designs are searched at the U.S. Patent Office to help establish valuable ownership or avoid costly legal liability. Over 100 years' total staff experience handling every government liaison need for industry. Phone or write for details. 200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 321 Arlington, Virginia 22203 Phone: (703) 524-8200 Fax: 525-8451 TOLL-FREE 1-800-642-6564 Major Credit Cards Accepted www.trademarkinfo.com Since 1957 GovtLiaison_Dir08 11/29/07 2:00 PM Pag of pest-management consultants at the Cali- fornia Department of Pesticide Regulation. I asked the audience to picture a vacuum cleaner salesperson who at the end of the week went to the supervisor and proudly said, "I had a very good week. I talked several people out of buying a new vacuum cleaner." I then asked the audience how long they thought the salesperson would keep the job using this ap- proach. My question was greeted with silence. A week later I got a call from the department's director, who asked me to come in for another meeting. I arrived a few minutes before it started, and in the pre-meeting chatter the person sitting next to me turned to a colleague and said, in a very exasperated tone, "Did you hear what that guy called us last week? Vac- uum cleaner salespeople!" How pervasive is the conflict of interest? One measure is to look at the number of inde- pendent crop consultants compared to those working for input supply companies. While concrete figures may not exist, consultants in California need to have a Pest Control Advisor (PCA) license to give pest-management recom- mendations to growers. (PCAs also play a major role in advising about fertility, irrigation and other aspects of farming.) The Association of Applied IPM Ecologists (AAIE) was formed 50 years ago to provide a group for California's independent pest control advisors to come to- gether and exchange ideas. There are currently about 200 AAIE members, and this number has remained fairly steady for years. Meanwhile, there are several thousand PCAs in the state. A solution in sight? So what is the solution to the problem? Some people believe lawmakers should prohibit input supply salespeople from making pest and nu- trition-management recommendations to grow- ers. However, I don't think this would completely solve the problem. There are also independent PCAs who over-recommend inputs. I believe the most promising solution would be to separate the cost of input sales and input recommendations. In other words, have every consultant charge for giving professional ad- vice, and separate this charge from the cost of the input. Another wrinkle would be to stop paying input supply company consultants a commission on sales but instead pay them a fixed salary. (As far as I know this model has not been adopted by input supply companies to any significant degree.) Price can have a significant effect on sales, and therefore it significantly affects the use of products and services in a market-driven sys- tem. When gas prices go up, the use of gas goes down. So one option would be to increase the unit price of pesticides and fertilizers. I don't think I even need to comment on the likelihood of this happening. The purpose of this column is not to de- monize people that sell inputs for a living or to imply they are not professional. Some of the most knowledgeable, effective and tal- ented consultants I know work for input-sup- ply companies, and their salaries are based on commissions from the sale of inputs. My main goal in writing about this topic is to prompt growers and consultants to consider the sys- tem and to point out that the input supply chain business model does not align with the sustainable farming model. Maybe this aware- ness will make a difference with growers and consultants who are trying to do more with less in the vineyard. 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. One solution to the conflict of interest is to separate the cost of input sales and usage recommendations.