Jun 3, 2009

Grape Growers Grabbing onto Sustainability

“Sustainable” is a soft, fuzzy buzzword, but grape growers are grabbing onto it, and it’s spreading like a virus in grape-growing areas. First it was California, then Washington, Oregon and New York, and now Michigan.

Wine grape growers got it first, but recently the National Grape Cooperative, the growers who own the Welch’s brand name, have taken to it as they find themselves on the inside track toward being a preferred supplier to Wal-Mart. And Wal-Mart is a leader beating the sustainability drum.

Is this just another headache for growers trying to make a buck farming?

Well, that question came up quickly at a meeting for grape growers held April 9 at the Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center in Benton Harbor. Both wine grape growers and those who grow Concord and Niagara grapes for Welch’s were there, and speakers came from New York and California – and Arkansas, Wal-Mart’s home – to explain the roots of it all.

The educational event was also the rollout for a new manual called Grape*A*Syst: Michigan Grape Grower Sustainability and Risk Reduction Tool. It was modeled after similar manuals written in California and then adapted elsewhere.

It’s not easy to figure out which horse is pulling the sustainability cart, but like a stagecoach, different horses pull it in different times and places. And growers can ride or not, with different levels of persuasion being used in different places. It’s all voluntary, so far, but growers are suspicious and wonder how long that will last and whether they should hop aboard or dig in their heels.

Farm*A*Syst has been around almost 20 years. Born in Wisconsin in 1991, it was invented to help farmers assess potential sources of pollution and environmental damage on their farms, and it highlighted manure handling, soil erosion, well contamination, pesticide storage and mixing areas and others. Many states adopted Farm*A*Syst and Home*A*Syst programs, and now they’re being adapted for particular industries – with many of those elements plus some new ones – under the sustainability label.

Leading from Lodi

Clifford Ohmart, from the Lodi Winegrape Commission in Lodi, Calif., said his growers wanted a program that would make Lodi grapes more valuable and competitive with those from Napa and Sonoma Valleys. With 750 growers and 100,000 acres in grapes in California Crush District #11, the growers wanted to be the first to brand themselves as sustainable producers.

They saw what the Central Coast Vineyard growers were doing, and decided to use the emerging concept of sustainability to their advantage.

“Sustainable” is usually described in three broad “E” categories:

– Environmentally friendly. Growers use practices that protect the environment, focusing on water quality, soil health, careful use of fertilizers and other agrichemicals, and address issues from air quality to global warming.

– Economically viable. Growers adopt and use practices that maintain and increase profitability by using integrated pest management, for example, or better business practices.

– Socially Equitable. Growers protect the health and safety of their workers, neighbors and consumers and use methods that protect generations to come.

A workbook was developed that cut these topics into 160 questions growers ask themselves, then rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 4. In the California system, 4 is best on the scale, but in New York and Michigan 1 is best.

A typical question is framed like this one, from the new Michigan manual: Are disease management records and weather conditions used to guide disease management decisions?

The “high risk” number 4 answer is: A spray calendar is used regardless of disease pressures and weather conditions. A slightly better (3) answer is: Disease management decisions are based on observed symptoms of disease. Slightly better still is answer number 2: Disease management decisions are based on observed symptoms and weather patterns.

But the number 1 answer, the gold standard, is: Disease management records, vine phenology and current weather data are used to guide disease management decisions.

The Michigan manual has 97 questions like that.

The Lodi Winegrowers Workbook was adopted by the entire wine grape industry in California, was published by the California Winegrowing Alliance, and is called the “California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing: A Growers Guide.” It’s available online at www.sustainablewinegrowing.org.

Moving in New York

Tim Martinson, the Extension viticulturist with Cornell University, said New York’s growers were motivated by different factors in the five different grape-growing regions. On Long Island, shallow water tables are a concern and growers there wanted residents to know their wine grapes weren’t a threat.

In the Finger Lakes region, runoff and erosion were concerns. Growers in the region near Lake Erie, where juice grapes are grown for Welch’s, wanted to align themselves with Welch’s emerging desire to mesh with Wal-Mart.

The New York book, also online at www.vinebalance.org, is called “Sustainable Viticulture in the Northeast.” It has eight sections and 140 questions, Martinson said. Since it started in 2006, the program has extended to 87 growers with 7,270 acres, or about 22 percent of New York’s 33,000 acres of grapes.

Martinson said the self-assessment can pay off.

“There’s a solid research base for most of the ‘most sustainable’ levels,” he said.

As an example, the standard for nitrogen use is such that growers who carefully monitor for nitrogen can probably save 50 pounds of N per acre – and that addresses an economic viability issue. It also addresses water quality. And it addresses global warming, he said, as nitrogen accounts for 80 percent of agriculture’s contribution to greenhouse gases.

Wine grape growers in New York have not yet decided exactly how they want to claim their “sustainability” status – whether there might be certification and labeling in their future – and how to use the “metrics” – the number scores – to their best advantage.

Wal-Mart’s part

Keith Mannella works for Welch’s, but he lives in Arkansas, home of the empire called Wal-Mart that Sam Walton built.

Wal-Mart has been pushing its suppliers of fresh produce to develop Good Handling Practices, and suppliers in turn have been pushing growers to adopt Good Agricultural Practices. Wal-Mart wants those to be audited by USDA. Wal-Mart also has a large program called sustainability, in which its whole corporate structure is involved in using renewable energy, recycling, cutting waste – and selling products from suppliers who subscribe to the same ethic.

Welch’s products are processed grape products – jams, jellies, juices, dried fruit, etc. – not fresh products. But sustainability applies to them, Mannella said. Welch’s sold 77 products, worth $190 million last year, through Wal-Mart’s 3,500 stores. Moreover, sales through Wal-Mart have risen to that level from $75 million in 2002.

“Welch’s is moving up the ladder to be a preferred Wal-Mart supplier,” he said. “Wal-Mart doesn’t charge us slotting fees or for ads and store displays. Wal-Mart’s margins are 10 to 20 percent below those of other buyers.”

All this turns into extra dollars for the grape growers who own Welch’s, and Mannella said it’s in their interest to cultivate Wal-Mart as a preferred place to sell products.

That, in a nutshell, is what brought sustainability into juice grape growers’ vineyards.

Juicing New York

Jay Hardenburg works for National Grape Cooperative in New York, and he’s been working to get juice grape growers there on board, just as Terry Holloway is now doing with Michigan growers.

Hardenburg said “sustainable agriculture means meeting the needs of the present and improving on the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Operating farms in an environmentally responsible way is the right thing to do.”

Besides getting benefits from the marketplace, growers can get increased personal satisfaction from doing things right. There is no absolute final destination in sustainable agriculture, he said, but the assessment program sets a baseline and gives targets. But it’s more a continuous journey of self-improvement and less a final destination.

Michigan’s version

In Michigan, Paul Jenkins, the small fruit education coordinator at Michigan State University, was the project leader. The program, called Grape*A*Syst, is a collaborative effort by MSU, the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) and National Grape Cooperative. The format of this program provides ideas for sustainable production strategies that are best suited to address environmental risks, while maintaining production of high-quality grapes. The program is integrated with another program called MAEAP.

MAEAP is short for Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assessment Program, and is a program by the Michigan Department of Agriculture for helping farms voluntarily prevent or minimize agricultural pollution risks.

The program, described by Josh Appleby, ties together a Farm*A*Syst-like assessment tool, a set of standards called GAAMPs (Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices) and a state-run third-party verification program. Producers who become MAEAP-certified get a yard sign telling everybody that the farm meets high environmental standards and gets state protection from nuisance lawsuits, guaranteeing them MDA defense in court cases.

For MAEAP, growers get a free confidential assessment from Groundwater Stewardship Program technicians working for MDA – with no repercussions or enforcements actions if they don’t meet the standards.

“It’s voluntary, confidential and non-regulatory,” Appleby said.

That, of course, is what growers fear: Having an inspection, failing to meet the standard and having adverse consequences – fines, perhaps – that prevent them from farming until they make expensive changes.

Right now, the grape sustainability movement seems to meet that test, offering benefits without consequences.