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Home > NVLSA members speak out > Wine industry has lost moral compass

Fear of the Forest Protection Initiative has caused the wine industry to lose its moral compass.

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Jan. 20, 2003

Napa Valley Register

Letters to the Editor,

Via: napaopinion@napanews.com

Fear of the Forest Protection Initiative has caused the wine industry to lose its moral compass.

In the continuing battle between Napa environmentalists and the wine industry, this past September an environmental group submitted the Forest Protection Initiative which will be on the ballot in March of 2004.  Especially within the wine industry, leaders are flailing around looking for some meaningful response. The initiative is so onerous to agriculture that it is creating near panic and leading to some very poor decisions by leaders of both the wine industry and the County.  The Streamside Setback Ordinance is just one of many unfortunate results flowing from this fear.

The victims of this ordinance are thousands of decent law-abiding property owners whose only apparent crime is to have property along the creeks and rivers over which the environmentalists and the wine industry are warring.  At the public hearing before the Supervisors on December 3^rd and 10^th over 700 angry property owners pleaded for relief from this ill-conceived ordinance. 

How did the wine industry respond?   The leaders of the Winegrowers, the Farm Bureau, the Grape Growers and the Vintners all stood up and told the Supervisors that they had been involved with the ordinance from the beginning, that it was needed and that the Supervisors should pass it, and they urged passage now.  Volker Eisele, speaking for the Grape Growers went so far as to say that anyone who opposed this ordinance was "ignorant."   These wine industry leaders conveniently ignored the fact that in exchange for supporting the ordinance they will be exempted from it.   Apparently, it never occurred to them that this type of bargain might seem immoral to those property owners not being equally exempted from the ordinance.

I've been in the Napa Valley wine industry for over 30 years and have never been ashamed of it until now.  This is an unfortunate public display of self-centered hypocrisy.   The Napa Valley wine industry can market wine better than anyone in the world, but we've forgotten how to be good neighbors.  We can and we should do better.

We all make mistakes.  I urge the wine industry and County leaders to reconsider their past decisions.  Please don't undo all the good will and negate all the generosity that Napa Valley vintners and growers have been known for by following a foolish and flawed strategy.    Use your power and leadership to craft an effective and honest response to the Forest Protection Initiative that is fair to all stakeholders and will make all of us, both in and out of the wine industry proud.  The Napa Valley wine industry has a good and proud story to tell, and if we tell it honestly, our neighbors will support us when we need them to.  

Stuart Smith

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