Wine Noise Part V: Glyphosate IRL

Wine 101

Host Keith Beavers explores the complex reality of glyphosate use in modern viticulture, weighing its economic necessity against environment

Key takeaways

• Organic vineyard management can be over 85% more expensive than conventional methods due to labor and equipment costs.
• The California Department of Pesticide Regulation reported significant glyphosate use in Napa and Sonoma regions as recently as 2018.

Main topics

• Glyphosate in viticulture
• Economic impact of organic vs conventional farming

Notable quotes

Organic farming is over 85% more expensive than conventional farming.

Conclusion

The episode provides a balanced view of the complexities of modern agr

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) My name is Keith Beavers and I bought a mini slow cooker just to have a simmer pot. I've never had a simmer pot. Falls here. The whole house smells like cloves and cinnamon and apples and I'll be doing this every year. Hey wine lovers. We know the history of glyphosate. We know the science. We know the data. We know what it does. What it doesn't do. Now let's talk about what's going on with it. in reality. The thing about glyphosate, as we've been going through this, because I'm learning with you, I'm finding out, as I'm sure you are, that a lot of this information about glyphosate is very, very recent, starting in 2015, really, and kind of working its way up until today. So we're going to talk about all the things glyphosate does and is, where it is, how much of it is everywhere, what's going on, what people think about it and all this. But just know that, like, We're kind of in the middle of this. This idea of herbicides and agriculture in the United States, and specifically in viticulture, is an ongoing, very present, current thing. So this is kind of a good moment to talk about it because from here on out, and projecting a decade into the future, it's going to be interesting to see how we've dealt with this thing. Let's talk about it. And just as a disclaimer, I'm going to be looking down at my notes a lot because there's a lot of acronyms here, a lot of percentages, a lot of data that I just cannot memorize. So if you see me looking down because I'm just trying to figure, I got like 13 or 14 pages of notes here. So bear with me. When you look at a vineyard, you see vines. And beneath those vines, you see other plants. Sometimes it's grass. A lot of it is weeds. There are certain weeds that are beneficial to vineyards and certain weeds that are not beneficial to vineyards. Weeds that are not beneficial to vineyards can be a host for pets or fungal pathogens. It can impede vine growth in newly planted vineyards, you know, the competition thing. And in addition to that... reduce the yields due to that competition. They can also increase pest activity from that first thing we talked about. It can decrease worker efficiency. If there's too many weeds going around, it's harder for people to get around them to get what they need to get done. And that's about it. Also, it just doesn't look good. Like... But weeds in vineyards look good unless they're not supposed to be there. Weeds can be beneficial to vineyards in certain ways as well. They can actually help to reduce the temperature of soil, helping the life in the soil thrive, meaning the sun is not hitting it because there are weeds to kind of protect. It also protects the moisture in the soil so it doesn't erode. It helps the vine take up nutrients. Also, some of the pollen and nectar of these beneficial weeds are consumed by beneficial insects for the vineyard. It can also increase the carbon in the soil and encourage microzeal fungal growth. It's the good stuff in the soil. So it's the bad weeds that need to be taken care of. Now, what are ways you can get rid of... weeds without using chemicals. You have them mechanically removed using a tractor. Of course, you're using gas unless it's battery powered. You can do hand hoeing, kind of backbreaking. You can do cover cropping, very popular, or you can do animal grazing, quite expensive. I say all these things with the caveats because it does cost a lot for these things to happen. There was a study done recently sampling 11 vineyards that are Speaker 1 (3:58) quote-unquote conventionally, like not under organic practices, and then 11 vineyards that were farmed organically. This is for management of vineyards. This is not about the chemicals. This is