Sustainable Farming Educational Resources

Imagine one vineyard machine that can prune, harvest, monitor vine health, and help guide irrigation decisions throughout the season. Manoj Karkee (Cornell University) explores how artificial intelligence, robotics, and cyber-physical systems are advancing farming efficiency through multipurpose robots, sensors, AI models, and human-robot collaboration.

When we talk about sustainability in wine, practices like conserving water, enhancing soil quality, and supporting biodiversity often come to mind. But sustainability is about more than caring for the land; it’s about caring for the people behind every bottle.

Healthy soils are built through years of management decisions and sometimes rethinking old practices. Jim Lincoln (Beckstoffer Vineyards) shares how his weed management strategy evolved from cultivation and herbicides to mowing, sheep grazing, cover crops, and no-till practices. Learn how improving under-vine soil health can influence costs, vineyard resilience, and fruit quality, and hear the real-world tradeoffs that come with making the change.

Growers rarely taste the wine made from their grapes. At Hope Family Wines, Stasi Seay uses annual tastings to help them connect their farming decisions to what’s in the glass.

Microbats can be voracious insect predators, but vineyard structure may limit how far they venture into a block. Matt Fowles (Fowles Wine) shares how observations of moth pressure inspired vertical structures that support microbat echolocation, with early trials showing increased bat activity and potential for natural vineyard pest control.