Article: Wine Empire Replaces Redwood Empire
Wine Empire replaces Redwood Empire
By Shepherd Bliss
WaccoBB.net
Sonoma County has been known as part of the natural Redwood Empire. Wine industry lobbyists re-branded it as the commercial “Wine Country.” Its economy has been so colonized by outside investors, who extract water and resources from the environment and export them, that another re-branding would be appropriate. A more accurate description would be that Sonoma County is now part of the multi-national Wine Empire.
Locals and nature have been dominated by these outside investors; they reap the benefits, while the environment and residents pay the costs. They have de-localized, industrialized, commercialized, urbanized and commodified a once diverse agrarian place and culture with their excessive wine production and tourism.
I am one of many military veterans who fled cities for the woods to recover within nature. I moved to the countryside and worked that land into a productive food farm. For nearly two-dozen years, I have lived amidst an abundance of redwoods, oaks, wildflowers, other vegetation, much wildlife, apple trees, and delicious boysenberries. We must work to preserve those natural resources and our agrarian culture.
The world’s largest Big Wine corporations-- such as Constellation, Gallo, and Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris)--have colonized Sonoma County. Investors from far away, many of whom have never even visited our lovely county, are the main owners. Locals and this land have become their cash cow, which they bleed and de-water.
Even investors from China have bought part of our county. Last year a subsidiary of the Chinese developer Oceanside Holdings paid $41 million for a permitted resort and winery in the iconic Valley of the Moon. Another large Chinese developer, Zhu Wenchen, then bought Tolay Springs. China’s middle class is growing, and they like California wine. Wine barons from here go to China to recruit investors and promote their brands.
GoLocal is a productive group that works to reverse this trend by supporting local businesses, including family vineyards and wineries. Though they have hundreds of members, theirs is a classic David vs. Goliath story.
CHAINSAWS BUTCHER REDWOODS
The Wine Empire’s chainsaws butcher redwoods, oaks, and other native trees, even without the required permits. This has been described as the “Whoops” strategy by long-term environmentalist Helen Shane.
Without permits, trees are toppled to make way for long, straight, rigid, regimented rows of stakes into the Earth’s heart. Big fences are constructed to keep everything except this mono-crop out. The wildlife that survived in that habitat for centuries either finds homes elsewhere or perishes.
“When found out,” Shane added, “the developers pay a penalty and go on their ways. They just blast away and pay a penalty after the fact. They’ve found it less cumbersome and iffy than following laws and ordinances.”
The tightly-pruned world of grapes on stakes lacks wildness, demonstrates fear of nature, and an extractive sense of reducing bio-diversity to a mere commodity to be bought and sold. Some of Big Wine’s vineyards display carefully-managed flowers, but seldom the wildflowers that bloom widely at this time of year.
In the bio-diverse Redwood Empire, tall trees rule. In the mono-crop Wine Empire, two-footed wine barons rule.
ALL EMPIRES RISE AND FALL
All empires rise and fall, including the powerful Ottoman, British, and Soviet empires. Many Wine Empire residents may be fed-up enough with its rulers to at least seek to down-size Big Wine, leaving the local grape growers and wine makers. Many work hard, make good wine, and deserve support for being organic, bio-dynamic, bio-diverse and employing sustainable farming practices, such as dry farming.
Nature could stop the Wine Empire, perhaps in the form of its punishing drought. After four relentless drought years and more expected, there are still 62 current applications for new or expanded vineyards and wineries in Sonoma County to add to the hundreds already here.
The Wine Empire extracts our water, processes it in factories, and imports it as wine. Along the way, they damage oxygen-providing, life-giving trees that pull moisture out of the air to the ground, and reduce diverse scenic views. They pollute the air with their truck in/truck out operations. Huge tanker trucks bring in grapes from out of the county and sell it at premium prices as “bottled in Sonoma County.”
Meanwhile, we locals live here. We love what remains of our semi-rural Sonoma County. Many of us have dug in. We know our neighbors. We do not plan to leave. We support local grape growers and wine makers who locate themselves in appropriate places where their tasting rooms are not on narrow, rural roads, thus endangering the rest of us.
“The loss of farm land and dairy land to vineyards, as well as the struggle to keep small, organic farms going is serious,” said a member of the new Four Counties Network, which focuses on winery over-development. “The impacts of event centers in wineries would be staggering, especially to water and traffic on narrow, rural roads,” he added.
Long Live the Redwoods!
(Dr. Shepherd Bliss {[email protected]) teaches college, farms, and has contributed to 24 books.)
Re: Article: Wine Empire Replaces Redwood Empire
Shepherd,
Thank you for this insightful article. You have strongly stated many important points.
I would like to add some thoughts about the Wine Empire and climate chaos, and possible actions our region needs to take, whether through local government or community education.
First of all, no more cutting down trees. I'd like to reemphasize "oxygen-providing, life-giving trees that pull moisture out of the air to the ground." In our redwood forests 34% of annual hydrologic input is from fog drip. We cannot afford to lose even one single tree. This from Wickipedia: "a single Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) can "douse the ground beneath it with the equivalent of a drenching rainstorm and the drops off redwoods can provide as much as half the moisture coming into a forest over a year." As you cite Helen Shane on the "Oops" policy, fines are insufficient deterrent. Tree cutting needs to be criminalized by our local and state government. And we need public awareness of the importance of redwoods and other trees to our hydrology and climate stability. We need tree cutting to be seen by our citizens as a moral abomination. Tell everybody: redwoods provide at least a third of the moisture that enters our watersheds. Their fog gathering needles actually add that much water to whatever rain falls.
Let this sink in. We hear a lot about the excessive water use by vineyards, but before they even start using water, they have reduced available water by 34% just by clearing the forest.
The next obvious step, especially as we face extreme drought, is to limit grape growing to dry farming. I like your statement, "Many work hard, make good wine, and deserve support for being organic, bio-dynamic, bio-diverse and employing sustainable farming practices, such as dry farming." Sustainable farming practices need to include no-till and other carbon sequestering methods.
As we face climate chaos, we need to join together to implement diverse ways of keeping water and carbon in the ground. Regulating vineyards is an important part of that picture. And of course, you and I agree that local owners have a more active and profound stake in understanding and doing the right things.
Long live the redwoods!
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Shepherd:
Wine Empire replaces Redwood Empire
By Shepherd Bliss
WaccoBB.net
Sonoma County has been known as part of the natural Redwood Empire. Wine industry lobbyists re-branded it as the commercial “Wine Country.” Its economy has been so colonized by outside investors, who extract water and resources from the environment and export them, that another re-branding would be appropriate. A more accurate description would be that Sonoma County is now part of the multi-national Wine Empire. ...
Re: Article: Wine Empire Replaces Redwood Empire
Shepherd, Last night I had the pleasure of dining with David Keller, Bay Area Director of Friends of the Eel River. This morning I went to FER's site and discovered this excellent article on wine growing's effect on water. The author raises many points suggesting changes that need to be made in growing techniques, regulations, and community action. It also cites your contributions.
https://eelriver.org/2015/05/turning-water-into-wine/
Like everything else, this is a climate issue, and requires a general change in perspective by activists and mainstreamers alike.
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Shepherd:
Wine Empire replaces Redwood Empire
By Shepherd Bliss
WaccoBB.net
...
Re: Article: Wine Empire Replaces Redwood Empire
Thank you, shepherd. I am anticipating the next thoughtful article regarding the land, property and rental market greed that is driving out our children and we long-time SoCo resident renters. Anyone?
