"Turning Water into Wine" by Will Parrish in East Bay Express

[Shepherd]

Following is a link to Will Parrish's lengthy research article "Turning Water into Wine" in the May 27 East Bay Express. Please consider making a comment. Padi Selwyn of Preserve Rural Sonoma County has already made a helpful comment, directing people to their website. The sub-head reads as follows, "The unregulated growth of California's wine industry in the state's coastal regions is depleting groundwater supplies and devastating rivers and fisheries."

This is an important article, since it reaches a large Bay Area audience. It could extend our reach into a wider national audience, especially if people respond from throughout the North Coast. Sonoma County's Wine Empire, after all, is run by outside investors from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, China, Europe, and elsewhere. Big Wine provides a commodity that extracts our common water and sells it throughout the U.S. and the world. Big Wine derives most of the benefits, and we locals pay most of the costs. This article can help make what is happening in Sonoma and Napa counties a national story. Your comments could add more power to this article. Please forward this link widely. It's time to take back rural Sonoma County from these wine barons.

Will is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at our fourth monthly Four County Network gathering, where he will present his research.



https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakla...wFullText=true

[Shepherd]

I just opened the following "Drinking our Rivers Dry" email from Will Parrish. It includes a link to his partner Burl--who was at the Jenner meeting of the Four County Network--and her new album "The Deep Well." Music and other art forms can be helpful in our growing response to the bloated Wine Empire. Please consider forwarding this widely.
Shepherd

Most of my research in the last month has focused on the economic and political forces that are destroying the waters of many of California's coastal regions -- such as where I live, here in the Russian River watershed.

The drought gets treated largely as a natural disaster. I see it mainly as a systemic consequence of organized greed on a spectacular scale. One feature of that system is that life-giving water is treated as a commodity for export, piped and drilled like oil, and those with more capital get to drill deeper and out-pump the little person whose wells go dry.

The main face of the problem in many California coastal regions has long since been the wine industry. I wrote the main feature in this week's East Bay Express, called "Turning Water Into Wine," about how "the unregulated growth of California's wine industry in the state's coastal regions is depleting groundwater supplies and devastating rivers and fisheries." Here's a link:

https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakla...wFullText=true

Speaking of wells, my partner Burl's band just came out with an awe-inspiringly beautiful new album called "The Deep Well" - https://inleelni.bandcamp.com/releases.

I've given several public presentations in the last month or so. Here in Ukiah, the documentary "Russian River: All Rivers" airs at the SPACE Theater on June 2nd at 6:30. I hope to share some words there, and I'll also be the keynote speaker at the Four County Network gathering in June, a regional assemblage of people taking on the wine industry's long-running sociological and ecological reconfiguration of California's North Bay and North Coast.
Best wishes,
Will

Following is a link to Will Parrish's lengthy research article "Turning Water into Wine" in the May 27 East Bay Express. Please consider making a comment...

[AllorrahBe]

Will, thanks to you, for all you do! (but watch your back! There are weird wine-warriors all around you. Stay safe.
Rev. BE

[dominus]

"I see it mainly as a systemic consequence of organized greed on a spectacular scale."

If a vineyard grows a mere 15 acres and each acre can produce upwards to 2500 vines, that tallies up to 37,500 vines. If each vine produces 2-4 bottles (let's average 3 for illustration purposes) then that's 12,500 bottles which are produced from 15 acres. Given the exorbitant price of land in Sonoma County, it now becomes necessary and makes sense to charge $100 or more a bottle to recoup costs and make a profit. Ergo 12,500 x $100 = $1,250,000. A consumer who buys a bottle of wine for $100 or more, wants to be wooed. They want to be reassured that they're buying something great, at least I know I would if I was to spend $100 on a bottle of wine. So throw in an event center with a tasting room and a vacation rental, and it's obvious to see why land and water is being converted into the wine business at an alarming rate here in the county.

Indeed, this land and water grab is a direct result of greed. Privatization of water and land is a growing consequence of a government which is beholden to big business which has successfully saturated government with lobbyists and corporate insiders jockeying for their agendas. Such lack of moral leadership has come about because we are a republic and not a true democracy. If we were a real democracy, citizens would be permitted to vote directly on all large and small issues and representation would be minimal. Instead, we have career politicians who vote and, most often, their votes are driven by self-interest. Thanks in large part to campaign funding and no term limits as well as an antiquated system of representation.

Economics, government policies, a population bomb which has detonated, and dwindling environmental resources, it's no surprise we are in the dilemma were in. My greatest concern is that privatization will prevail as government blindly can not recognize the source of its' own "systemic" failure.

A special thank you to Will Parrish for a superb piece.

[Shepherd]

My appreciations to Dominus for adding these details. I hope that she or he will consider adding part of this comment online to the original East Bay Express article. It would be important to put the town where one lives. Many of the comments have been by Sonoma County people. The Express even asked a number of us if they could publish our comments as letters to the editor. Such pressure is likely to draw other regional publications to cover this story.

"I see it mainly as a systemic consequence of organized greed on a spectacular scale."

If a vineyard grows a mere 15 acres and each acre can produce upwards to 2500 vines,...