Lovely Video of the Life of a Winegrape - But They Left Out the Herbicides/Pesticide Part...

This "nature video" comes to us courtesy of the Sonoma Wine Grape Commission.

Where is the part where they apply synthetic herbicides and pesticides?

That's what happens to 97% of wine grapes grown in California...

Here is what the data from the state of California Dept. of Public Health web site tool combined with the California Dept. of Pesticide Regulation shows us when we look at pesticides used on wine grapes in Sonoma County.

Here is how much Roundup was applied in 2009 in Sonoma alone (click on the image to enlarge the image):

The California Dept. of Pesticide Regulation data for Sonoma County wine grapes
This graph shows the Roundup sprayed on wine grapes in this county alone.

Some people think Roundup is not really that dangerous (although more and more health authorities do not agree with them), so let's look at the category of scarier substances - "known/possible/probable carcinogens" in 2009 in Sonoma County here (click on the image to enlarge the image):

The California Dept. of Pesticide Regulation data for Sonoma County wine grapes

This graph shows the known/probable/probable carcinogens sprayed on wine grapes in this county alone.

Ok, it's not looking very good. But let's say you're a PhD in something scientific and you say, well, we don't know exactly what pesticides we put into the category of "probable" carcinogens, so perhaps that's not the best indicator.

So let's look at endocrine disruptors, shall we? Here's the Sonoma County data on that from the same sources for 2009 (click on the image to enlarge the image):

he California Dept. of Pesticide Regulation data for Sonoma County wine grapes

This graph shows the endocrine disrupters sprayed on wine grapes in this county alone.

Would you like to know more about endrocrine disruptors? This is the stuff like BPA that we just got rid of in plastic water bottles. I would recommend listening to a few podcasts from the National Science Foundation funded NPR radio program Living on Earth which has done a good job of reporting on them over the last 15+ years.  There is a surgeon at UCSF and Children's Hospital in Oakland - Dr. Laurence Baskin - who does surgeries to fix little baby boys' genitals, making them more manly, because of the presence and effect on small children of endocrine disruptors. These are not trivial matters.

But the wine industry is busy out there replenishing the supply.

I think that for truth in advertising the Sonoma Wine Grape Commission - as well as all the other wine grape commissions and sustainability programs - should add these graphs from the Dept. of Pesticide Regulation and the California Dept. of Public Health, plus footage of herbicide and pesticide application, plus some Alfred Hitchcock shower scene music and pictures of birds, fish and marine mammals dying.

We are soooo being brainwashed into thinking wine grapes are good neighbors to the environment. They could be, but the way our industry works today, it is not. This is what the industry's face of "sustainability" looks like and it's not a pretty picture.

The good news is that we do have choices - and we can choose to patronize those in the wine world who don't subscribe to applying these synthetic and dangerous chemicals onto 500,000 acres of California's agricultural lands. That would be our poor, unsung heroes - the organic AND sustainable wine community - which is why I am writing this app so you can find out who they are and BUY THEIR WINES.

We want our wine industry to stay - we just want it to be a good neighbor.

For a complete list of pesticides used on wine grapes in California, the Pesticide Action Network has an easy to read listing of the data collected from the California Dept. of Pesticide Regulation. Click here.

To use the California Agricultural Pesticide Use Web Mapping Service yourself, click here.