Sonoma launches think-tank to tackle agricultural ‘crisis’

Sonoma County Winegrowers, the organisation that promotes the Californian wine region, has established a new think-tank to combat the agricultural “crisis” facing winegrowers in the county.

A Sonoma County vineyard (Photo: Wiki)

The Sonoma County Centre for Ag Sustainability is a two-year programme intended to identify some of the most challenging problems facing winegrowers and innovating new strategies to strengthen the region’s plans for sustainability.

It was announced this week by Sonoma County Winegrowers president Karissa Kruse, who said maintaining the status quo was “not an effective strategy moving forward”.

“The reality is that ag[riculture] is on the brink of a crisis. Not only are thousands of acres of farmland being lost to development in California every year, but there are serious threats to the financial viability of our businesses due to increased regulations, rising labor costs, new overtime requirements, drought and more,” she said.

“We must look to lead on addressing these pressing issues and new ones that will emerge to ensure our continued success and the preservation of agriculture in Sonoma County.”

The two year programme is set to bring together a diverse group of business leaders from different industries and experts whose research will be used to inform the strategy of the Sonoma County Winegrowers and its 100 Year Business Plan. The centre will also publish a white paper of its findings to provide insights to other winegrowing regions, it said.

It will be headed by Professor George Day, the Geoffrey T. Boisi Professor Emeritus at The Wharton School of Business and co-director of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management, as well as a past chairman of the American Marketing Association.

Two years ago, Sonoma County Winegrowers committed to becoming the US’s first 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.

California has been affected by severe summer droughts for the last six years, with the situation in 2014 when climatologist Mark Svoboda of the National Drought Mitigation Center, told USA Today they had reached “unprecedented levels” following an unusually dry winter.

This week’s has seen the onset of flash flooding in vineyards in Sonoma, Napa Valley and Mendocino.