The Sonoma County Winegrowers Association on Thursday reported that 99 per cent of its vineyards is certified sustainable. The trade association likewise declared its next project – the launch of a pilot climate adaptation certification program to fight climate change.
The record-breaking percentage of vineyards certified sustainable was declared five years after 1,800 said they were focused on pursuing best management practices and having their properties certified sustainable by a third party.
That voluntary effort has led Napa-based Fish Friendly Farming to collaborate with Sonoma County Winegrowers on a pilot climate adaption program to locate a local solution to climate change, a worldwide problem.
“It’s our belief that the best method to impact any kind of climate change is through local solutions,” Karissa Kruse, president, Sonoma County Winegrowers, said Thursday. “It’s in reality about making a move and about having measurable practices that we realize will have an effect.”
Fish Friendly Farming, kept running by the California Land Stewardship Institute, developed the climate adaption certification program to reduce greenhouse gas emanations – carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane – and to boost carbon sequestration in vines, soils, trees and shrubs. It did as such in the wake of checking on in excess of 300 scientific articles and a scientific peer survey, said Laurel Marcus, who leads Fish Friendly Farming.
“We’re working with the winegrowers of Sonoma because they did such a fabulous job with their sustainability program,” Marcus said. “It’s really outstanding.”
“Ninety-nine per cent is a major number,” Marcus said. “That is a really enormous accomplishment to get to that point.”
Twenty yet-to-be chosen Sonoma County vineyards will partake in the pilot voluntary climate adaption certification program which involves the preparation of a farm plan.
