We call it greenwashing. When you create your own certifiers so you can call yourself “sustainable” you are greenwashing.
Sustainability? Fake News?
Thank you for the excellent, balanced April cover story: “Wine Our Best friend or Worst Enemy?”
When the Sonoma County Winegrowers buy full-page ads in local papers headlined “Love the land and the land loves you”, touting their goal of 100{5fc40a96f14c4a6aa4c2a32569b0a57dcc67c0b31eb04c341474283f11b6cdd2} sustainability, one has to wonder. If they love the land so much, why are they using so many harmful chemicals? Sustainability? Sounds like fake news to me.
In 2015, WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared glyphosate a “probable carcinogen.” That same year, just over 46 tons—of glyphosate were applied to Sonoma County vineyards. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup; the most widely sold weed-killer in the world. In 2016, a consensus statement by a group of scientists blamed the heavy and rising usage of glyphosate on endocrine disruption, birth defects, kidney and liver damage, and gastrointestinal health issues. They also found that Monsanto’s “allowable daily intakes” in the US and EU were based on outdated science.
Meanwhile, sales of organic wine are growing, significantly faster than sales of non-organic wine, with each acre yielding about $1500 more for the grapes. If our local wine industry truly wants to be sustainable they will consider your author’s recommendations to move toward biodynamic or organic/pesticide free farming for the health and welfare of everyone, not just business profits.
Jane Colman, Santa Rosa
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