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Is Sustainable Winegrowing Sustainable?
by Cliff Ohmart | 08.10.2015
 

The sustainability of growing wine grapes on the North Coast of California has taken some serious heat recently: first in an opinion piece by Ernie Carpenter, a former Sonoma County supervisor, in the July 15 Sonoma Press Democrat, followed by an op-ed by Shepherd Bliss in July’s Sonoma County Gazette. Some strong words were used to chastise the wine industry, likening it to “Big Oil,” calling it “Big Alcohol,” dominated by “massive corporations” “promoting and controlling politics in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.” Accusing the industry of green washing and likening it to hog washing. Sonoma County grapegrowers were accused of using tax payers’ money to advertise their green-washing message, while at the same time poisoning nematodes, weeds, birds and critters, drilling 1,000-foot-deep wells and taking as much water as it wants while not paying workers a living wage. Wow! The wine industry dominates politics in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.? Hmm…..

Coincidentally—but not connected to these two pieces—an editorial by Tamar Haspel appeared on washingtonpost.com with the title “Why everyone who is sure about a food philosophy is wrong.” He began by stating there is “an unbreachable divide” between advocates of modern conventional agriculture and those advocating other forms like organic, local, anti-GMO, Biodynamic and permaculture. He used the term “philosophy of food production” and observed that advocates from these various types of food-production philosophies have it wrong because food is a constant tug of war between people and planet. He stated, “We can’t feed ourselves without doing environmental harm.” This article stimulated quite a discussion on an organic farming/integrated pest management working group that I recently joined—most if it saying Haspel, while making some good points, also got it wrong.

One common thread I see connecting these op-eds—and the discussions they stimulated—is that whoever is doing the talking feels everyone else has got it wrong. And while none of them say it outright, the unspoken thought is the one delivering the message has it right. We humans have a need to divide the world into those in the right and those in the wrong. Oh well…

So what do I think? First, Vitis vinifera is not native to the United States, so if your food philosophy is that growing exotic plants is not sustainable, you shouldn’t drink most of the wine made in the U.S.—no matter how the grapes are grown. Second, if the natural environment is the only truly sustainable system, then humans should have stayed hunter-gatherers.

On a more serious note, we need to come to grips with the fact there are more than 7 billion people in the world. Quibbling over whether Sonoma County wine grape growers are sustainable or not does not really move the ball down the road in my opinion. The practices used by U.S. wine grape growers fall along a continuum from not sustainable on one end to very sustainable on the other, with most growers falling somewhere in the middle. It is up to all of us—wherever we are on the continuum—to strive to move along and continually improve over time.

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