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Thursday, 17 April 2008 |
The California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA), a San Francisco based non-profit organization, will receive two grants in the coming months to help the organization continue its mission to help promote the benefits of sustainable wine growing practices.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will donate $82,000 to CSWA to allow the organization to identify motivations and conservation benefits of sustainable practices. CSWA will conduct interviews of 100 grape growers to explore the motivations for adopting sustainable practices as well as the perceived benefits and drawbacks surrounding them, the organization says.
After the surveys are completed, CSWA plans to conduct workshops that inform growers of survey results, and will help explain the advantages of developing certain environmentally friendly initiatives, such as biodiversity protection, watershed restoration and integrated pest management.
CSWA also will receive a $183,640 grant from the California Department of Pest Regulation (DPR), intended to help extend proven, reduced-risk pest management strategies from one of its manuals, titled the "Sustainable Winegrowing Workbook," to wine grape, table grape and raisin growers throughout California.
The grant calls for a 20 percent increase in winegrape performance, compared to current sustainability criteria, and a grower survey to capture project impact on table grape and raisin acreage.
"The sustainable winegrowing program has already generated widespread participation that has given California's wine industry a unique advantage in the global market," says Karen Ross, president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG). "The DPR grant is an exciting opportunity to work with other grape sectors that share the wine community's commitment to environmentally responsible pest management practices that support the production of high quality grapes and wine."
CSWA also plans to continue to assist in the implementation of the Sustainable Wine Program, an initiative launched in 2001 by the Wine Institute and CAWG to promote vineyard and winery practices that are sensitive to the environment and economically feasible to implement and maintain.
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