Author: Raven J. Railey
The Tribune

Edition: Tribune
Section: CENTRAL COAST LIVING
Page: C1

In a little more than a decade, the Central Coast Vineyard Team has grown from a dozen wine-grape growers talking environmentalism and politics over dinner to a nationally recognized leader in "green" vineyard management methods.

"I didn't envision it going that far," said Bob Thomas of Mesa Vineyard Management, one of the founding members. "There were others within the group that did envision that, who had more foresight than I did."

For the second year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has named the Vineyard Team a Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Champion for its "outstanding efforts" to reduce chemical use in vineyards. This year, 15 groups in the nation received the award.

Members and staff are regularly invited to speak about the team's methods throughout the United States and in other countries. This week, executive director Kris O'Connor spoke at an EPA conference in Raleigh, N.C.

In July, she attended an ! agricultural exchange between U.S. and South American farmers and government regulators in Chile. A Chilean vineyard manager told her that growers in his area have used the Vineyard Team's methods as the basis for their practices since they received a copy of the team's Positive Points System in 1999.

"Never in our wildest dreams," said O'Connor, "could we have imagined that -- passing along this document from farmer to farmer -- that it would have ended up in Chile."

Measuring Progress

The Positive Point System is central to the Vineyard Team's approach. It's a self-assessment that measures how well farm practices protect the quality of water, soil, wildlife and workers' health. It was developed over several years with feedback from farmers, wineries, UC Cooperative Extension staff, instructors, consultants and environmental groups.

As copies of the system have been passed along, it's become a model for other vineyard groups. Citrus and almond growe! rs, as well as golf course managers around the country, have also used it to create self-assessments for their own industries.

The roots of the system -- and the Vineyard Team -- grew from a dozen phone calls that David Lucas made one day in the early 1990s.

Then as the vice president of grower relations for Robert Mondavi Winery, he arranged a dinner with farmers from San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Monterey counties. With training in community development and facilitation, and experience in the Peace Corps, he wanted to find an approach to grower relations different from the traditional buyer-seller exchange.

Colleagues warned him that growers would organize against him. But Lucas saw success with a team in Lodi that formed to improve grape quality.

"I know a group dynamic has an influence on the members of the group and outside of it that an individual can't have," he said.

"You could see down the road there were going to be significant issues affecting the growers on the Central Coast." A large winery in Sa! nta Barbara County had just stripped a hillside to build a vineyard, Lucas said. "That was not smart in terms of having a relationship with the larger community."

A main goal was to show farmers that caring for the environment is in their own self-interest. Eventually, they invited staff from the Environmental Center of San Luis Obispo and government regulators -- in part to offer the growers a "kick in the pants" when needed, Lucas said.

When the Positive Points System was first introduced in the mid-1990s, Lucas said Central Coast growers were confident their practices would score well. When they didn't, they suddenly saw the environmental problems in their own vineyards and sought to learn how to fix them.

"It's a grassroots effort," O'Connor said. "Our growers help develop the solutions and provide the innovations."

The assessment includes questions such as:

• Are beneficial insects released in your vineyard as an alternative to needed pest! icide treatments?
• Are owl or raptor refuges provided for bioco ntrol of rodents?
• Is a winter cover crop maintained for erosion control? and
• Do you record seasonal rainfall?

By 2004, the Vineyard Team had helped farmers reduce their use of targeted chemicals by 377 pounds -- a 47 percent reduction in applied pesticides. In its Clean Water Project, an estimated 15 tons of soil was kept out of nearby bodies of water at just one of the vineyards.

Talking farmer to farmer

The team believes peer-to-peer communication is the most effective. They meet at about a dozen local demonstrations and discussions -- usually in a vineyard. The growers who attend the programs are responsible for 70,000 acres -- about 75 percent of all the vineyards in the three counties. Almost half speak Spanish.

In the past year, those growers completed 320 self-evaluations on about 12,000 acres. Those who repeat the assessment have consistently higher scores than first-timers. According to the Vineyard Team, that's a sign the sys! tem works: self-testing motivates growers to make changes.

Thomas, who oversees about 500 acres for clients, said the awareness influences his day-to-day choices.

"It's become a routine function now of considering the long-term ramifications" of decisions, he said, "considering other things besides how many grapes I'll get per acre."

He chooses "softer" chemicals, even if they are more expensive. He checks which chemicals are on the "EPA hit list" to be phased out, he said, "because I know I better find alternatives before it's gone."

The EPA recognition focused on the Vineyard Team's pesticide project, funded by a three-year, $300,000 grant from the UC Biologically Integrated Farming Systems program. The project taught 12 local growers how to reduce use of "broad spectrum" pesticides that often do more harm than good.

With new grants totaling $800,000 over the next three years, the team is working with the state Regional Water Quality Control ! Board on a similar project to address both pest management and clean w ater.

A bigger shift

The Vineyard Team isn't alone in its focus, Thomas said. "I think the whole industry collectively has moved."

Since the mid-1990s, the EPA has encouraged voluntary programs like the Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program, which now has 150 members nationwide. The move is partly in response to criticism of the agency's "lengthy and costly" regulation, according to the EPA Web site. State and local agencies are also promoting voluntary efforts rather than forced compliance, said Bob Lilley, the agricultural commissioner for San Luis Obispo County.

"From my perspective, there's adequate regulation in place," Lilley said. "It's difficult for us to keep up with the amount of regulation that's on the books -- and continues to be adopted. I can only imagine how difficult it is for growers to keep up with it."

Lilley agrees that growers are more receptive to new ideas if they come from a peer. And one advantage of the Positive ! Points System, he said, is that it offers a tool for measurement and accountability.

It also helps that the Vineyard Team's main source of funding is its 200 members, though individual projects receive public grants.

"The wine grape industry in general and especially the Vineyard Team have done great with providing part of the funding for programs they want to promote," Lilley said. "I think that approach has a much higher likelihood for success than just asking the government for funding."

Online

Find more about the Central Coast Vineyard Team and the Environmental Protection Agency's pesticide reduction programs at these Web sites:

www.vineyardteam.org

www.epa.gov/oppbppd1/PESP /strategies/2005/ccvt05.htm /strategies/2005/ccvt05.htm

www.epa.gov/oppbppd1/PESP/about.htm

At a glance ...

• Wine grapes made up nearly one-quarter of all agricultural revenue for San Luis Obispo County in 2004. The crop earned growers $127 million in gross revenues.
• Vineyards now cover 34,199 acres in the county -- about 30 percent of the total farmland in the county, not including acres used for grazing.
• The acreage producing grapes in the county has more than tripled in a decade: 32,000 bearing acres in 2004, up from 9,000 in 1994.

Caption:
TRIBUNE PHOTO BY JOE JOHNSTON - Juan Artero Garcia fills bins with syrah grapes during the harvest at Vista Grande Vineyards in San Miguel. Vista Grande is a member of the Central Coast Vineyard Team, which is pioneering the use of alternatives to the use of chemicals in the vineyards.

Copyright (c) 2005 The Tribune
Record Number: 0509230036