L.A. Vineyards: Spat, Snit, Snot (Opinion)

This is the second in a three-article series:

• Why Does Los Angeles Hate Grapevines?
• OPINION: L.A. Grape Spat: Credibility Crisis and Elitism
• L.A. County Lists Staggering Number of Uses Permitted in Santa Monica Mountains

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SNIT

This controversy has all the hallmarks of a governmental snit.

I’ve sensed all these foul smells both as a journalist covering local city halls to Congress and the White House. And my time as a top aide to a state governor and U.S. Senator gave me a first-hand look at retribution against political enemies and the snits resulting from bruised egos.

And this looks like both.

On the one hand, so much of the words expended have shaped up as virtuous guardians of the earth versus evil private enterprise. Boring, but potent.

And on the other hand, we have a group of vineyard owners who took the initiative to apply for … and obtain, a federal American Viticultural Area without seeking the blessings of  local pols. Local officials feel they “own” certain territory and go ballistic when someone appeals to a higher authority.

Proper rings were not kissed, other expected entitlements not acknowledged.

So we have a snit fit being waged with bitter and often irrational polemics based on few actual facts.

SCIENTIFIC CREDIBILITY LACKING ALL AROUND

For the good of the public and the environment, issues in this debate need to be decided by facts and data. Instead, the  rhetoric contains few actual facts embedded in a torrent of rhetoric without actual, provable, credible data.

None of the parties involved with this land use plan have made use of information that has any level of disinterested third-party credibility.

No credible, disinterested third-party research has been presented. And what data has been presented is not peer-reviewed or published in respected journals for the simple reason that the quality does not rise to that level of excellence.

The arguments raised by the CCC, Board of Supervisors and CCFF have been political, anecdotal but , so far, mostly scientifically unsupportable.

UNSUBSTANTIATED CHARGES ABOUT WATER

In an interview with Los Angeles Magazine, Yaroslovsky made some strong comments regarding water that, when pressed, he could not substantiate with specifics:

‘Additionally, vineyards act as firebreaks and vines grow deep roots that help prevent soil erosion and also require little water to thrive—they like to be stressed. Drip irrigation systems, employed by most Malibu growers, provide optimal regulation for water use—especially in comparison to horse farms. “We’ve turned on our drips for a total of 11 hours since last September,” the vintner told me, adding that it’s probably “less water [than what is] used to wash out one horse stall.”

‘Yaroslavsky provided no data on water use from local vineyards but cited vineyards in Santa Ynez that use “250,000 gallons of water a year,” and conceded that while drip irrigation is useful, “not everyone has it.” He also believes that vineyards in the Santa Monica Mountains, most of which are planted on steep slopes that have been terraced, are “degrading the scenery” and stressed that his principle objective is to protect the natural terrain and to “leave the creeks and sycamore groves as they are for future generations, so the biosphere will be protected.” ‘

 SNOT

Ironically, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors plan allows wineries and tasting rooms, but not vineyards.

Approval of finished wine, but not the grapes could be interpreted as an elitist attempt to separate the “glamor” of the product from the “labor” of the roots.

Well-groomed and expensively coiffed wine sippers with Gucci loafers and shiny, late-model European luxury sedans are acceptable to the county.

But vineyards mean an increase in those “other “people … vineyard workers.

Whoa! That means people with brown skin, funny accents, dirt on their boots and all those old, faded mini-vans and mid-1990s Hondas.

And they have to  break a sweat — a big one — to grow, prune and harvest the grapes. These are clearly not the people that residents of multi-million-dollar homes want to see on their roads and in their hills.

The elitist aspects of the list of approved uses is also reflected in its approvals of schools and colleges, but NOT those that include trade schools. Clearly blue collar workers and other members of the underclasses are not welcome.

Sometimes the strongest communications we send are actions, not words.