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NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
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| Environmentalists in California Fight "Vineyard Sprawl" |
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One might think that growing grapes to make wine might be among the world's least objectionable uses for land. But environmental groups in California -- which produces 90 percent of the country's wine -- find it obnoxious.
- Charging that the wine makers are wasting precious resources and despoiling the landscape with "vineyard sprawl," environmentalists are trying to rein in the industry -- and some of their efforts are bearing fruit.
- About two years ago, Napa Valley officials enacted an ordinance restricting vineyard expansion.
- Elsewhere in the state, activists have fought vineyards on the basis that they use pesticides and produce excess waste.
- Vineyard interests appear to be knuckling under to the attacks -- with the state's Wine Institute trade group and the California Association of Winegrape Growers now about to adopt a code of "sustainable" practices, which includes sharply limiting water intake.
Trying to avoid mandatory state regulation, some vintners see positive aspects in parts of the 360-page code workbook -- particularly sections relating to water conservation. But the environmentalists still complain that the code doesn't go far enough in the area of curbing "vineyard sprawl."
Source: Jim Carleton, "Conservationists Try to Stem California's 'Vineyard Sprawl'," Wall Street Journal, October 23, 2002.
For WSJ text
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB1035313787848011751.djm
For more on Land Use Controls
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/sta
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