"Sustainability" of the Wine Industry

The following letter was published in the PD on Friday 9/7 and in my opinion, raises legitimate concerns as to the Wine Industry's negative effect on our county:

Defining sustainable
EDITOR: Flaws in the wine industry’s ability to promote itself as sustainable are becoming broadly apparent. Visitors to tasting rooms are increasingly asking: “Do you spray herbicides on your vineyard?” This public health question should only be the first question of many.

If a consumer knew that the winery with a sustainable label was not required to be organic, had cut down all the oak trees on the property, was depleting groundwater aquifers, had eliminated all wildlife and had paved over farmland for an event center and parking lot, that consumer would question the “sustainable” claim.

The consumer might also learn how lax regulations on winery event permits had created more dispersed tourism and increased vehicle mileage, rural traffic and greenhouse gases.

This might lead to the perception of the sustainable claim as self-serving, unsubstantiated and missing the mark of what real sustainable practices should involve.

The final question is this: Is the sustainable label meant to inform consumers or misinform them?
NANCY FEEHAN
Santa Rosa


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I agree with this PD letter about the dangers of the bloated wine industry in our beloved county. With some important exceptions, especially among the few truly organic vineyards, they consume most of the good ag. land, which would be better used for food crops. They are the primary user of cancer-causing Roundup. This is why Sonoma and Napa counties have the highest cancer rates in California.

For more information on these matters, one can go to the websites of Wine and Water Watch and Preserve Rural Sonoma County, both of which have been doing serious research in recent years and published many credible articles about these issues. Most of the wine industry is owned by corporations based outside Sonoma County, so the money they makes leaves our county. What they mean by "sustainabilty" is sustaining their profits.