Commentary: Respect the grape and its legacy in Napa County
Jeffrey Earl Warren • St Helena Star
King Lear thought the only thing “sharper than a serpent’s tooth” was a thankless child.
Lucky he didn’t live in the Napa Valley. We’re currently rewriting the book on ungratefulness. Only it’s not kids. This time it’s the adults — led by the Napa County Board of Supervisors.
Despite an erosion control plan and an environmental impact report, the Board of Supervisors denied a 20-acre Howell Mountain vineyard, over 5 miles from Lake Hennessey. They claimed it might endanger Napa’s water source. Ergo: no more vineyards may be planted in Conn Valley, Chiles Valley, Pope Valley, Sage Canyon, Pritchard Hill, or the east face of Howell Mountain overlooking Bell Canyon. Tens of thousands of acres will be removed from consideration.
Ironically, one of the champions of the Ag Preserve, Volker Eisele, would not be allowed to plant his Lower Chiles Valley vineyard today due to it being in the Lake Hennessey watershed.
Do the defenders of the board’s decision think they know more? That they are smarter — or care more about the valley than Volker? An ardent conservationist, do they think he would have endangered someone’s water source?
They are the White Man. We are the Indians. They know more than we do. They know what’s best for us. And they are destroying our culture.
Rather than rely on the neutral EIR, the board relied on the findings of the Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy group. Why have an EIR if you are going to be swayed by politics?
The Ag Preserve was meant to use ag to fight off urban development. Originally, one could plant whatever and wherever one wanted — as long as she followed the rules.
Fortunately, most of the folks who sacrificed to give us the Ag Preserve in 1968 are gone. They don’t have to witness today’s ungrateful recipients of their largesse.
Picture the valley in the early ‘60s. Few families of Hispanic descent lived here permanently. Workers, called braceros, were transient. They were bused up in non-air-conditioned school buses for the harvest. When it was over, they left to work fields elsewhere. A bracero got 25 cents per box. A hard worker could earn $8 to $10 per day.
Today, a good worker makes $28 an hour — over $200 per day.
In the ‘60s cattle was the Valley’s biggest crop. The odor from the slaughterhouse on the Trail could be detected for miles. There were two tanneries on the river down in Napa. Dairy farms like the Rock ‘N R and Bettinelli’s dotted the highway.
Where did all the cattle manure, blood, bones, hides, entrails and toxics wind up? In the river — the valley’s communal sewer.
Smudge pots turned the valley’s air “Pittsburgh-black” during the frost season.
Remember walnuts and DDT? Thanks to the grape, we don’t use the chemicals that we used back then.
Before the Ag Preserve there were one-acre minimums on the valley floor. Now it’s 40-acre minimums for each home and 160 acres in the hills. Vineyards and their viability are all that stood between us and suburban sprawl.
A freeway was planned to run up the middle of the Valley.
Ranching was hard work. Many farmers struggled. Unpainted, dilapidated barns stored hay, their tin roofs rusting. Old pipes and rotting posts supported rickety barbed-wire fences. Pickups, not BMWs, were the vehicles of choice.
In 1960 with fewer than 20 wineries, job options were few. Today, college grads compete for high-paying jobs in hundreds of wineries and supporting businesses. A professional class has emerged where none existed before.
Thanks to the grape, a Latino middle class has grown up here. Fifty percent of St. Helena’s schools are Latino. Latinos own business and homes. The un-air-conditioned school bus has gone the way of the “cattle crossing” signs.
Despite the fact that we are the most environmentally strict farming county in the country, some still criticize the wine industry and talk about alcohol farming, hillside ordinances, setbacks and restricting vineyards.
The lifestyle you reap today comes from one source: The grape. From white-collar jobs to entry-level jobs for immigrants, it is the engine that drives our economy. Equally important, the grape has preserved open space and prevented subdivisions from polluting our valley.
We are an Ag Preserve. Not a state park.
If you can’t love the grape, at least you can be respectful and grateful. As Cordelia said, “According to your bond; no more nor less.” A thankless child ain’t a pretty sight.
Jeffrey Earl Warren lives in St. Helena.