Army Corps Vs Sacramento Delta

Posted on May 3, 2012 by John Salisbury

IN THE VINES – MAY 2012
John Salisbury

Here I go again! I was thinking of giving the Sacramento Delta water woes a rest but a fairly recent move, discussed in an editorial in the SF Chronicle 12/11/11, by our old friend the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has got me going again. Not meaning to bore you once again by mentioning my pedigree of 162 years of my family’s farming in the Delta but it does give me some personal insight into how outside governmental interference sometimes goes against local common sense.

To the point. The levees in the Delta are made of sand and/or peat – hardly good building blocks but it is what we have to work with. The early settlers built up their own levees, forming fertile islands, in the vast swampland and immediately planted trees and shrubs to hold the soil in place. Pretty much common sense – Ag conservation 101. Well, back in the 1960’s the Corps, which has control of all navigable streams, decided to take down all the trees and rock the levees at the average water levels leaving the Sacramento River and many of its tributaries looking like big ditches. The resulting flow greatly increased the force and speed of the river causing erosion problems when the water normally goes above the rocks in the winter. Might work on the rocky Snake River and other streams that lie below the surrounding land but not the levees where the water is over 20 feet higher than the ground on the other side.

The beautiful Live Oaks, Sycamores, and other beneficial trees, many of which were over 100 years old, were chopped down and the remaining vegetation burned off. Their main thinking, plus making it easier to look for squirrel and other varmint holes, is that they fear that winds might topple trees taking a chunk of levee with them. They also worry that a tree might die and with the resulting root decay, water seepage may occur causing a blowout. Rarely has any of these two scenarios have ever caused a flood on their own.

My 5’1” sweet maternal grandmother (but of feisty Spanish heritage) seriously threatened to shoot anyone who tried to cut down her favorite large oak on the old paddlewheel steamboat landing in front of her farm. It got a lot of play and because it was not on the slope but on the flat part of the landing she was able to save it. However, all the work and rocking around it damaged the roots which led to its demise a few years later. Another neighbor got into a fist fight with a job supervisor and they ended up rolling down the levee into the river – real Wild West stuff!

After a few decades, the Corps started to see the error of their ways and began reversing some of their practices and encouraged and even paid for some of the plantings of trees with fibrous roots, especially native Live Oaks. Well, that has now changed post-Katrina so once again we are suppose to chop down the trees and shrubs or face the loss of federal funding after a flood. How’s that for blatant extortion!

But what about the proven water and wind erosion on the unprotected sand and peat levees? What about the loss of shade for the migrating fish (salmon, steelhead, shad, etc) and the lost vegetation protection and roosting for birds and animals? What about the Corp’s own studies that show vegetation strengthen the levees and slow down flows? What about the cost of this flawed thinking of at least $7.5 billion dollars to take out the vegetation from 2,100 miles in the Delta? That cost is half again more than what the proposed Buffet rule would bring in per year to give you a perspective from several angles. What about the extra cost of taking out the roots of the trees this time and how are they going to do that without weakening the levees? What about doing all this which will not offer much more protection if any? More likely it will make the levees worse according to the water reclamation districts which maintain the levee systems?

This new reversal was called “our Pearl Harbor” by Ann Riley, a Bay Area riparian expert, because it was a sneak attack only found out when published in the Federal Register. No hearings, just an edict. Evidently a $1.34 million dollar study concluded that trees “increase uncertainty” (how much – 5%, less?) for levee integrity. They also demand “other than federal entities” take out the trees. I guess that means those of us who live on the other side of the levees have to take out the trees we were encouraged and willingly planted thinking the Corps finally wised up and were thinking of our safety.

My good friend and next door farm neighbor, U.S. Representative John Garamendi, who also lives behind a levee near my home town, Walnut Grove, said that local flood control district managers know what is necessary to protect our levees – not Washington. He well stated “The Corps has set a one-size-fits-all-policy. But would the Army buy the same size boot for every soldier?”

A proposed compromise that is in the works is the idea that would leave the river side of the levees with mature vegetation for soil protection and wildlife habitat with shade for the fish. It would also provide for removing seedlings as they come up on the land side so eventually it would clear much of those slopes. This would make it easier to inspect the levees and all right with most farmers except that it will wipe out half of the best pheasant, quail and other bird habitats the levees provide. Farmers need to farm every inch of their properties to stay solvent so the irrigation ditches on the delta farms are about the only other areas left for wildlife habitat.

I know this is a regional problem and not specifically about our area on the Central Coast. But like the potential big pipe transfer of water around the Delta to be state funded by a huge water bond (perhaps on the 2014 ballot) written about in the last In the Vines, whereby few locally will see a drop of water, this expense will be also partially paid locally. Just trying to point out why and where some of your tax money may go and how it will impact farmers up north. I will probably go into local water issues next month while I am on point.

We only have around 5% of the Central Valley’s riparian forest left and now the Army Corps of Engineers wants to wrack a good chunk more of it down. It is kind of like they are stuck in the movie “Groundhog’s Day” doing the same dumb thing over and over and never learning a thing.

“A nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself. Forest are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and gives fresh strength to our people (plus animals and levees!). Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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SACRAMENTO DELTA WATER WOES

Posted on March 28, 2012 by John Salisbury

IN THE VINES – APRIL 2012
Up north, we long-time farmers have been hearing a great sucking sound south of us that is going to get a lot louder if the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act, authored by San Joaquin Valley Representatives, that was passed by members of both parties in the US House of Representatives (HR 1837) gets passed by the Senate. This Central Valley, Westlands Water District, and SoCal cities backed water bill is another attempt to grab more water from the Sacramento Delta regardless of other people’s water rights, environment of the Delta and the Bay Area, fisheries, etc. It will preempt what we are trying to do in California to come up with a reasonable water plan and will let Washington decide what is best for us. These southern importers have been taking more and more water from the Delta which was originally supposed to be water that was in surplus.
My family has water rights going back to 1850 that are now in jeopardy so that land where even a jackrabbit would need a canteen can be farmed. They were drawn to the Delta (Walnut Grove) from the east coast, with a stop in Ohio, because of the fertile soil and availability of water. They, along with other farmers helped build their own levees and we, the descendants, are still responsible for the upkeep through reclamation districts. After the Central Pacific railroad was built over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the middle of Utah, many of the Chinese railroad workers settled in the Delta and helped build up the levees to form the Delta with its many islands and 1000 miles of waterways.
Another part of the water grab is the state’s proposed pipeline from north of the Delta around to the pumps near Tracy that the Brown administration seems to be pushing. Two 33 foot tunnels (over 3 stories tall) will go through and under (150 feet) the Delta for miles destroying farmland, houses, and the stability of the levees in its’ wake at a cost that no one can predict. Estimates range between $12 to $54 billion – how is that for a spread! The cost will be passed onto rate payers and state tax payers via a water bond initiative, maybe in 2014, many of whom (many Central Coast residents) would not benefit from the divergence. At a recent hearing for a cost-benefit analysis (AB550) plus an up or down Assembly vote was killed by the testimony of many lobbyists for water contractors because they don’t want the cost to be known. I don’t even know how the farmers who will be getting this water that would bypass the Delta will be able to afford it.
Over 100,000 acres of land in the central valley that had been irrigated with Delta water have already been abandoned because of the severe salinity in the ground and this ground will never grow crops again. There was a plan at one time not long ago, which was fortunately shot down, to pipe some of this selenium tainted water to our coast nearby to be dumped into the ocean. What is at risk is that we may be trading fertile sustainably farmed Delta farmland for more sub-standard ground that can only be used until the salinity becomes too much. Because the only thing that keeps the salty Pacific Ocean from coming up into the Delta is enough force from the fresh water going south. Take that away, especially in drought years which happens a third of the time, and we will be forced to irrigate our crops with brackish water. Once on the soil, salt is hard to get rid of not unlike the stories in the Bible and of the Romans where the ground of the defeated were supposedly salted so crops could not be grown.
Don’t get me wrong, the bulk of the land in the south valley is great for growing crops. The big change is the conversion from row crops (cotton, processing tomatoes, grains, etc.) to permanent tree crops (grapes, almonds, pistachios, pomegranates, citrus, etc.) with most on drip irrigation which helps. However, these growers are taking a big chance that the water is going to be there and need to make decisions in short water years as to what to irrigate. Obviously, the trees are going to get the water first and many row crops most likely not planted especially since the delivery forecast is only predicted to be 30% of normal this year because of the dry winter.
There is a lot of excess water going out the Golden Gate in wet winters that should be figured into the answer. This water should be captured with reservoirs like the proposed Sites Reservoir near Maxwell. This same concept could also be beneficial with smaller lakes and ponds which could also be used for recreation, with the fisheries considered, throughout the northern and central watersheds that flow from the mountains to the sea. These water holding basins could be held in reserve for supplementing the flow south, especially in drought years, not unlike the federal oil depositories so long as the Delta is assured of its necessary water quality.
We have to encourage the new irrigation and conservation techniques that are drastically changing in both in agriculture and in cities. More use of drip irrigation (rural and non-rural), less water gulping landscapes especially in Southern California, more desalination plants when economical along the coast, ground water infusion, plus many other smaller changes that add up. Drives me crazy when I stay at a motel or with relatives down south and they don’t even have low-flow shower heads or toilets and then driving around town and seeing way too much wasteful landscape irrigation running down the street at all hours!
Agriculture throughout the state needs water, cities need water and with some smart water management of our resources, water saving techniques, money spent on long term storage projects and levee repair, and personal responsibility, there could be enough water for all to share. If we could only take the politics, money and greed out of the decision making, we could have a sound statewide water policy.
“Water is life’s matter, matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water”. – Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Hungarian Biochemist

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Bar Patrons, ’11 Wine Info, Wine Calories

Posted on March 12, 2012 by John Salisbury

AVILA VALLEY GRAPEVINE – March 2012
John Salisbury
Want a fun thing to do next time at a bar? Watch how the patrons hold their glasses (hopefully wine) and you may get an indication of their personalities and maybe reveal a little insight into your own character. Dr. Glen Wilson, consultant psychologist at Kings College in London observed over 500 people drinking at bars in London.
He broke them down into 8 categories based on their body language and actions. There was the Playboy, Flirt, Ice Queen, Browbeater, Gossip, Jack the Lad, Wallflower and Fun Lover. The Playboy and Flirt seem to hold their glasses and bottles in an excitable or provocative way plus play with their drinks and the gossips (mostly women in cliques) would lean over their drinks like in a conspiracy. The Fun Lovers drank and held their glasses loosely and took only short swigs so not to miss out on what was happening around them or what was being said.
The Wallflowers tend to choose small drinks and, in case of emergencies (what I don’t know), seem to always have a little left in the bottom of their glasses. ‘Ol Jack the Lad would take up as much space as possible with the way he stood and with his glass while the Browbeater would gesticulate with his glass or pint (beer drinker for sure) in a somewhat threatening way. He didn’t mention what the Ice Queen does but I expect maybe adds more ice? So check out those around you and your own behavior or suffer divulging more than you want by the way you handle your glass. Now that the rest of us know the signs, we will be watching! See if you can add to the list and let me know.
We have an interesting year coming up in the wine business. The most glaring information is that the bulk wine inventory has hit a twelve year low. The wineries with excess wine inventory in tanks and barrels are enjoying a bidding war for their wine. Where we couldn’t even get any interest in bulk wine as late as last Fall, we now have buyers offering twice the price. Past surpluses of wine were as high as 25 million gallons but with 3 short years in a row the inventory is down to less than 4 million gallons now. This is not just a United States problem but also a world-wide situation where most countries are in balance or below. Cabernet Sauvignon especially is short along with light excess of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
We held back some 2009 Chardonnay for a sale that didn’t materialize and couldn’t move it a few months ago; however, now we have recently sent out several samples to different interested wine brokers. Even Merlot which went into the dumps after it got knocked in the movie “Sideways” and resulted in a 40 percent reduction in planted acreage is in demand mostly because so much of it goes into blends particularly Cabernet Sauvignon.
On the demand side things are also looking good especially in the category of wines $20/bottle and over which are up 28% year to date. Direct to consumer shipments were up every month last year over the previous year with a 31% gain in October 2011. Grocery stores sell about 68% of the California wine nationwide. The top emerging wine trends are red blends, un-oaked Chardonnay, and Moscato and other sweet wines and it is expected to continue. The Moscato interest may stem from being mentioned in rap music.
We all like to down a bag of potato chips now and then but the calories could be in the mid-500 calorie range. What is a glass of wine in calories? Well your reds run Pinot Noir at 121, Merlot at 122, Cab Sauv at 124, and Zinfandel at 129 calories a glass. For whites it is Sauv Blanc at 119, Pinot Grigio at 122, and Chardonnay at 123. So it is reasonable to rationalize that it is justifiable to drink a couple of glasses of vino instead of chips – right?
“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut’! Ernest Hemingway

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Taste Buds & Wine

Posted on February 9, 2012 by John Salisbury

AVILA VALLEY GRAPVINE – FEBRUARY 2012
John Salisbury
One of the great things about evaluating wine is how your taste buds react. In an article by Amanda Greene in WomansDay.com, her research showed that there are seven things that you probably don’t know about your taste buds. First is that you can’t see your taste buds because there are around 6 of them hidden in those bumps on your tongue. There are special receptors for taste in the buds that let us tell between sweet, salty, sour and bitter plus perhaps a fifth which is called umami for the savory component and this information is sent onto the brain. You also have taste buds all over to include the roof of your mouth, throat and stomach.
The second is that we all do not have the equal amount of taste buds. Adults have between 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds with the higher end being the “supertasters” and what they taste is much more intensive. It is interesting that the supertasters do not like vegetables all that much because of the bitterness they pick up that others do not. Same goes for very sweet desserts which they perceive to be over the top sugary. Try a simple test to see where you fall. Apply a couple of drops of blue food coloring to your tongue and swallow a couple of times. Look at your tongue and know that the fungiform papillae (bumps) will not pick up the dye so if what you mostly see is some pink polka dots on the blue background you may be on the low end. If your tongue is almost solid pink, then you have a bunch of them and you are probably a supertaster.
Taste and flavor are not the same thing because taste picks up the physical sweet, sour, etc. components and flavor is the combination of taste and smell which is what happens when you eat something and the brain registers it. So sniffing a wine will send the smell information to one part of your brain and the drinking information to another part of the brain. So scent plus taste equals flavor and is why it is so important to take a good whiff of your wine before drinking although smelling alone without taste is not going to get you flavor because your brain knows the difference.
The fourth thing is that your taste buds were designed to keep you alive because they will tell you whether or not to swallow what is already in your mouth – had a corked wine that tasted like wet cardboard or a dirty dish rag? That would not be lethal but surly unpleasant. Sweetness is craved and naturally loved by infants plus it is brain food; whereas, bitter is a sensory indication of poison and they reject it. Also, we like our salty snacks because sodium is an essential mineral for making our nerves and muscles work.
What you like for flavor is not always set in stone is the fifth bud fact. You can train your palate to new foods that were not available to you growing up. The way to introduce new foods to your family’s diet is to bring out the sweetness. Like adding cheese on broccoli or even adding something fatty to the recipe because your stomach fatty acid receptors will send a pleasing signal to your brain. It is why some of us in the winery add Merlot to Cabernet Sauvignon because it cuts the normal sharp tannins of Cab with the smoother Merlot. It is also, I think, one of the great reasons for the popularity of red and white blends especially with the younger generations because we can craft flavors, especially sweetness, to take off the edge. We can put in up to 25% of other varietals into the main wine and still call it a Cab, Syrah, Zinfandel, or whatever. On the other side of the coin, if you eat something you really like just before getting a bad flu you might not like it for a long time. As a kid, I used to love thick peanut butter and jelly sandwiches until one real hot day when I took a really big bite and it got stuck in my mouth and throat and I darn near suffocated – still can’t stand the smell or taste of peanut butter!
Hormones can make our tastes change. Many pregnant women in the first 3 months are turned off by bitter vegetables because their taste buds are warning against possible harm because the sensors may be hardwired to protect the baby. Also, pregnant women crave high energy sources – fats and carbos in bread, candy and sweets. Craving ice cream may be looking for an energy source but pickles probably are not what a pregnant woman would need. Wonder how a woman’s taste is affected during “hot flashes” – probably want to be carnivorous (just joking)!
Lastly, your taste buds are short lived and are constantly changing over. They start as basal cells and convert to taste cells and die, 10 to 14 days, and fall off. Burning your tongue can also kill them but they grow right back. Taste remains robust as you age but women start the decline of the bitterness taste after menopause since it no longer part of child protection.
A man who was fond of wine, being at table, was offered some grapes as dessert. “Much obliged” said he pushing the plate away from him, “But I am not in the habit of taking my wine in pills”.
- Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savain “The Physiology of Taste” Dec. 1825

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John Salisbury’s Bio

Posted on December 27, 2011 by John Salisbury

John is a 6th generation California farmer whose family has been continuously farming in California for 160 years starting in the Sacramento Delta in 1850. He has farmed many different crops throughout the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Imperial Valleys plus a couple of years near Los Mochis, Mexico. John now concentrates on farming 45 acres of winegrapes in the Avila Valley and Paso Robles.

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Proposed Federal Ag Child Labor Regulations Overreaching

Posted on December 26, 2011 by John Salisbury

Proposed Federal Ag Child Labor Regulations Overreaching
Mercy, Mercy! Please deliver us from these nanny-state unregulated regulators who have set their sights on agriculture child labor laws. If you have chanced upon my columns in the Avila Community News, Cal Coast News, or at our blog inthevines.com, you know that I have been lamenting the lack of work ethic in our youths and young adults. Well, here comes another codling work-ethic killer. The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a set of proposed regulations that all but keeps kids from working on farms to include those owned by extended farm families.
Among some of the proposed new rules, with more pending, would include;
- Operation of Ag tractors – Prohibit workers under 16 to operate or assist in the operation of tractors to include tending, setting up, adjusting, moving, cleaning, oiling or riding as a passenger or helper. This includes the operation of power-driven equipment by any power source (animal driven also) other than human hand or foot power (i.e. forklifts, lawn and garden tractors, milking equipment, ATVs. etc.). Guess we have to go back to 16th century technology!
- Prohibit hired farm workers under 16 from the cultivation, harvesting and curing of tobacco (huge in the South), entering GPS settings on any moving equipment, detasseling corn (big deal in the Mid-West), or be on a ladder more than 6 feet (convert to all dwarf orchards?). No longer exempt student learners who have received equipment operating certificates from Ag. Extension Services. Instead they will have to enroll in a 90 hour systematic school instruction above the 8th grade level (translation = more government jobs).
- A young man or woman under 18 cannot work for companies that store, market or transport farm-product raw materials. That would include grain elevators, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and auctions. Those under 16 could not work around any breeding stock to include sows, cows, sheep, and horses with their newborns. This would probably include working during breeding, branding, castrating, herding by horseback, vaccinating, and most other common animal husbandry chores like just catching poultry. So is this the end of the FFA & 4-H projects and county fair auctions many of which also involve young city kids?
- Prohibits for any under 16 to work on any farm construction, scaffolds, roofing, and handling any ag chemicals no matter how benign (to include organic).
- Exception would be farm kids working directly with their parents. They would not be exempt if they worked for a family corporation, partnership, or LLC that has an uncle, aunt, cousin, grandparent or a non-family partner involved which would eliminate 95% of all farms.
Where do I start? Maybe my own experience will show what is common on a family farm. We, to include most my school buddies and relatives, started working summers at least by the 5th grade (10 years old) at 85 cents an hour and a few years later we even worked during Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter vacations. From these jobs, we paid for our entertainment, cars (hot rods in the late 50’s), and most of us paid for our own college education and gained an unparalleled work ethic. My dad always said “I can pay for your education anywhere you want to go but you will appreciate it much more if you pay for it yourself”.
I got my driver’s license at 14 and was driving an old dump truck on the dangerous two lane levee roads in the Sacramento Delta (river on one side and pear orchards on the other 25 feet below) delivering sugar beets and grain to the receiving sites. I drove tractor full time mowing, disking, cultivating, hauling pears, etc. in the summers starting at 11 and sprayed our pears at 14 with a caterpillar tractor. Later, still under 16, I moved sprinkler pipe and hand loaded full pear and tomato lug boxes in the fields. When lug boxes were replaced by half-ton bins, I hauled them out of the fields by tractor and then loaded onto trucks with a forklift. We also did dozens of other normal farm chores. I am not looking for a medal or pity for this because where I come from this was business as usual and I profited from it in so many ways. This is what we do growing up on a farm and it is expected and accepted because the many generations before us did it also with much less sophisticated and inherently much more dangerous equipment and we all survived – so no big deal!
My kids also worked from an early age in our agri-business operation (heck, my daughter is still at it!). I already have my 9 year old grandson, Drake, helping me in the vineyard and it is a very special bonding time for the both of us. He drives the ATV Mule and hops off and helps me pick up grow tubes, big rocks, trash, prunings, etc. He has started his own garden at his home completely on his own initiative. He also has a good feel for running a bulldozer. He might not be our 8th generation California farmer but by God he, and the other three, will know the value of work by the time they are out of college. Because we are structured as a family LLC (Salisbury Vineyards), these rules may try to prevent that from happening but rules or no rules, they will work on the farm!
I guess the DOL thinks that we farmers can’t be trusted to properly train our kids and non-family kids to do the jobs safely. They have to think they know better, in their tiny cubicles over there in Washington, and need to step in and protect our kids from us ignorant, bib overalled, uncaring hayseeds and stifle work ethics, life long skills and accomplishment to boot. So who do we replace this large population of farmworkers with – union workers or worse yet more illegal immigrants? Is that the idea here? Farming is not just a way to make a living but a lifestyle that has been passed down through many generations.
Over half of the present day farmers are elderly and about to retire or give up major responsibilities (most of us expect to die with our boots on). We have always needed to start the next generations early on and train them to work safely and with responsibility. When they are all-knowing teenagers, forget about it because the chance to instill caution, safety, responsibility, work ethic and a desire to be farmers has passed. These proposed regulations will definitely hinder interest in agriculture as a possible and desperately needed career choice for our youths. Sure, there have been serious accidents in agriculture and there are cracks in the system, but you don’t have to treat the safety problem with a sledgehammer and draconian age restrictions that are contrary to a historic lifestyle.

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy”. Ernest Benn

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Report on Citizen’s Picking Crew and 2011 Winegrape Harvest

Posted on October 26, 2011 by John Salisbury

inthevines.com

What a lousy growing year but some of us remain hopeful that quality will be good for certain varietals. If nothing else, the wines will be lower in alcohol with higher acidity – more of a French style. In our case, once finished, we will pick about 80% of normal due to a few problems with some of our smaller blocks. The first record breaking spring freeze on April 8 caught our eastside Pinot Grigio block and completely wiped out the crop but the newer west block was unscathed. Our Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon escaped this first frost because we didn’t have bud break yet but we lost about 15% as a result of the following frost.
As for the Chardonnay, we just couldn’t keep up with the organic mineral oil sprays to combat the Powderly Mildew that was an epidemic on the Coast thanks in part to a late rain and a gloomy summer (was there one?). As a result, the Chardonnay was down at least 40% and I wasn’t real proud of the grapes when we delivered them to Harold Osborne, our winemaker. However, after tasting the juice he did his usual “silk purse out of a sow’s ear” which makes it easier for me, the farmer. Even though we dropped a third of our large second year grafted Paso Zinfandel (onto Cab), we should have dropped at least one-half because we are having trouble getting it ripe.
The Pinot Noir was the bright spot as we delivered close to our normal tonnage and with good quality before the early October third rain (1.25 inches). The same is true with our Albariño, this is our second crop year, which is turning out to being a tough and prolific grower and an incredible white wine to boot. At Salisbury Vineyards, we sold out of the first year’s production of 100 cases in just two months. We will pick our cool-weather Syrah on-time even though part of it was affected during bloom time by that late spring rain. Statewide they are calling for the crop to off 10% but I have to believe it is going to be much more. My friends up north say that October’s rain seemed like it went on and on and was devastating. We should get a better idea in mid-November on the final tally.
Now for a report on our Citizen picking crew. After a “Call to Arms” for local unemployed citizens to pick grapes that started in our monthly column in the Avila Community News and our blog inthevines.com, we were picked up by Cal Coast News, Lewis Perdue’s international “New Fetch” wine blog (you should get it if you want to know what is going on in the wine business worldwide), ‘Wines and Vines’, WineBusiness.com and by KSBY’s television newscast. We had over 80 inquiries for the jobs. We had forty come in and fill out a five page application from which we picked 22 to come in for an interview with four of those not showing up. So we took the 18 remaining and started picking on a Wednesday. That day cost us over $500/ton which is three times the normal. The next day it picked up a little. I was becoming worried because we were getting behind as the Pinot Noir was quickly getting ripe. So we brought in one of our veteran documented crews on the third day. They (75% women) lapped the citizen crew. The fourth day was a Saturday and four of the “citizen crew” didn’t call or show up and at the end of the day we let another six go because they just weren’t up to the job and hadn’t showed any improvement or desire to do so. It was obvious this was their first time in the field or else the first job ever for the younger pickers (some were “volunteered” by their mothers).
That left us with eight, one of whom could only work two weeks resulting in the “Magnificent Seven” (out of 80) and quite a diverse group it is. The leader is a retired Lt. Col. Air Force Chaplin plus an unemployed waitress, graphic designer, a young man from Transitions Health, and three young fellows with various degrees of college education. Three members of this crew do quality control by taking leaves and bad bunches out of the bins plus picking while the others are pure pickers. To date they are averaging around $12/hour. At this point, I wouldn’t trade them for anybody but unquestionably they will not be back next season because they will all certainly get better jobs in the meantime. We had to really chaff through the straw to get the kernels and this process is not sustainable. We are bit lucky here because we are fairly near urban populations. But what about those in the remote rural areas where most of the ag-jobs are? How do they get the unemployed, hours away, to the fields? How are they going to be able to do this with such an unreal dropout rate of over 90% in our case?
Nationwide there is an acute shortage of farm workers to include California. Washington apple growers are running radio ads offering $120 to $150/ day to pick apples with few takers. Washington state officials figure that the agriculture labor force is about 72% “document challenged”. Georgia figures they are 5,200 jobs short for field workers. Alabama, which brought it on themselves with the country’s toughest immigration laws, is reporting huge shortage of labor for construction, agriculture and poultry. Texas is looking for pickers for organic crops without much luck. When these crops are not picked then all the people, mostly US citizen, who process, ship, sell, provide goods and services to all parts of the agribusiness chain also don’t work. The domino effect is tremendous.
Farmers are stuck to the land and do not have the privilege of an Apple or Gap that can move their production to countries with many low wage workers with little protection for the workers. We pay top dollar, regularly inspected by OSHA, EPA, Air Quality Control, Dept. of Pesticide Regulations, Regional Water, and on and on. We supply the safest food in the world at a reasonable price that must rise just by supply and demand if this labor situation is not brought under control. The alternate is the importation of foods grown with $8/day labor with the lack of government oversight on food safety.
We need a guest worker program now. The Obama administration has initiated twice as many immigration enforcement cases against businesses in the first seven months of this year as compared to the year before. The labor pool is drying up because of fears of the migrant worker that are finding out that the business owners can’t risk the penalties and the need for legal documentation. We need a guest worker program with USDA certified employers where taxes are paid, proper wages and working conditions are required, drivers are licensed and insured (most car pool to work), and they must go home for a month or two annually to visit families and take care of business. In a few years, most won’t be back because they will have made enough money to buy a farm, market, or be able to use their acquired skills in business and live where they really want to be – Home.

“The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!” Anonymous

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Citizen Grape Pickers wanted & NAFTA Truck Fiasco

Posted on September 1, 2011 by John Salisbury

“A Call to Arms” especially to you who say Americans will do the work instead of undocumented immigrants! You suggest that if farmers paid enough for these ag-labor jobs then the unemployment rate will diminish. Farmers find this humorous as most of have been paying well over California’s minimum wage of $8/hour for years. At our operation, we pay a guaranteed $80/day for 6 to 8 hours/day to pick winegrapes starting around the second week of September. That’s provided we finally get some sunshine around here and not this way over-extended “June Gloom”. The wages usually average out to around $12-$13/hour because we start at 7 a.m. and knock off around 1:30 p.m. in order to get the fruit to the winery relatively cool and before the big rush for the crusher.
We usually work a 5 day week with some breaks in between ripening until the end of October and then wait on our cool-weather Syrah picking it around Veterans Day (11th minute, 11th hour, 11th day of the 11th month and you can add the 11th year this time). Requirements are that you fill out a job application, provide us with documentation for our 2011 I-9 and W-4 forms, participate in a safety briefing, take only the normal breaks, keep up with the crew doing your share, can lift 35 pounds, and follow picking instructions which is basically, “If you wouldn’t eat it, then drop it because we don’t want it in our wine”!
We supply the cotton gloves and shears. On occasion, depending on the need, we may go the full eight hours but it is not the norm. Three quarters of the work is in Avila Valley and one quarter in Paso Robles. We expect the pickers to work in both vineyards and provide their own transportation. Call Salisbury Vineyards at 805-595-9463 between noon and 5 p.m. Looking forward to a huge signup! I truly hope to be pleasantly surprised seeings how we just hit 12% unemployment in California. For those of you who would like to just come out for a couple of hours and experience the harvest, you are more than welcome (work for wine?).
We really weaseled out on our part of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement-1994) which included a requirement that Canada, Mexico, and the United States allow full access to each country’s highways. Pressure from the trucking labor unions and their unfounded claims that Mexican trucks and drivers were unsafe, had environmental problems and shouldn’t be allowed on our roads, prevented the implementation. Also, there was their falsehood that U.S. trucking jobs would be threatened when in fact it would open up both Mexico and Canada for new hauling opportunities. Nothing was said or done about problems with Canada’s trucks. Know why? Teamster can organize in Canada but not in Mexico. So during the Clinton years, trucks from Mexico were allowed only to go a few miles north of the border in the buffer zone. Mexico won a formal NAFTA challenge that ordered the U.S. to open the borders in 2001 or face severe trade sanctions.
The newly installed President Bush tried to implement the order but was blocked by a group of labor and environmental groups in U.S. Federal court. This verdict was over turned in 2004 by the U.S. Supreme Court. President Bush then worked with Mexico to implement a successful pilot program for Mexican trucks (only 96) to be allowed access. The Department of Transportation’s study during this test concluded that long haul Mexican trucks were safer than our trucks to include their short haul trucks in the border buffer zone. However, again under pressure from certain members of Congress and trucking labor unions the new President Obama, who as a Senator voted with the labor unions, signed a law ending the 18 month truck access program. Do you see the political trend here?
So what’s Mexico to do after 15 years of being singled out but impose severe tariffs ($2.4 billion) in 2009 on our U.S. trade which was applied against a lot of agri-products including table grapes (45% tariff) and wine (20%). Our table grape shipments alone dropped from 5.5 million boxes in 2008 to 1.6 million (70+%) the following year. Wine also suffered with our country’s third largest trading partner.
It is estimated that $900 million in U.S. agricultural products alone have been impacted by the tariffs imposed in retaliation by Mexico. Unions said jobs would be threatened if the trucks were allowed to cross the border and what happened? Well, many jobs were lost alright but not for the self interest unions but for those in many of other industries who were severely affected by the crippling tariffs. Finally in July this year, we owned up to our obligation and signed an agreement with Mexico allowing access to trucks on both sides of the border. The order will be fully implemented soon and tariffs will be cut back or eliminated as a result.
Of course, there was an immediate bill by Rep. Peter DeFazio, (Dem-Oregon) to block the administration from going through with the agreement – why is that not a surprise! We will see if the “Quesos Grandes” in Washington finally have the fortitude (was going to use another Spanish word here but this is a family column) to say no to the Teamsters.
A side note as to safety and cost. I was in Mexico farming tomatoes near Los Mochis, Sinoloa while NAFTA was being negotiated and signed. I had to transport my tomatoes by Mexican trucks, which after inspection on both sides of the border, had to be unloaded just north of the border into a warehouse and then picked up later by an American carrier. This delayed the tomatoes from getting to the markets in Phoenix and San Diego by at least two days plus I had to pay for all the warehousing and the unloading and loading of the trucks. Besides the added cost, the time delay and extra rough handling didn’t help my fresh vine-ripe Roma tomatoes one bit.
This trucking agreement was to have eliminated all this. I would have had the choice of a Mexican or U.S. truck to pick up my tomatoes in the field, get inspected, and sail right through the border on to the markets – cheaper and better quality as a result. Having been in the truck business most of my life, I can attest to the high quality of the Mexican trucks and drivers that I used. At that time, because of NAFTA, most of them had been gearing up to be qualified to haul goods and produce into the U.S. with top of the line equipment only to have the door slammed shut on them. This really has been a sorry chapter in our dealings with Mexico no matter what you think about NAFTA or Mexico for that matter. Ah, politics – you gotta love it!

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy”. Ernest Benn, British Publisher.

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AVILA VALLEY GRAPEVINE – 8 – 11 – SULFITES, HEADACHES

Posted on July 30, 2011 by John Salisbury

Some have said: “I get a headache from the sulfites in the wine but when I go to Europe and drink their wine, I don’t get them because they don’t use sulfites” – not so. There is a lot of misinformation out there about sulfites (sulfur dioxide and its other forms) and wine. Sulfites are added to wine and many foods to fight oxidation, microbial contamination and premature aging.
Lisa Gross in the January 1911 issue of “Wines and Vines” did an excellent article on the subject because sulfites have been getting a bad rap starting back in the ‘70s and early ‘80s with the salad bar controversy. Those of us who were around in those days probably remember that many people where getting sick after eating in restaurants. At that time, food processors and many even now used a bunch of sulfites in many foods to include canned, dried, and fresh fruits and vegetables plus veggie syrups, juice, fresh and baked products, chips, seafood, candy, beer, wine plus a whole lot more. The processors put in prescribed and exact amounts of sulfites but at the restaurants the amounts added to salad bars were being applied “willy-nilly” in large amounts by untrained hourly employees – “If a little bit is good, then more is better!” They were spraying it on by the bucket loads and even those not allergic where getting sick.
This brought about several studies and it was found out that there are a very small number of asthma sufferers who can have problems with sulfites. There are an estimated 22,000,000 Americans with asthma of which 20% have severe problems and 5% of that group (220,000 or 1% of the total asthmatics) are very sensitive to sulfites. The FDA outlawed sulfite sprays on fresh foods and required warnings for 10ppm and above on prepared foods starting in 1986. European wineries, which also use sulfites, do not have to put sulfite warning on their wines except when they are exported to the USA.
Sulfite exposure can aggravate the symptoms of asthma but contrary to popular opinion does not cause headaches. That myth probably comes from where we have to put “Contains Sulfites” on the wine label which makes people think that it is a warning for headaches. It also doesn’t seem to be a histamine problem either except in rare cases.
It is now thought by some experts that tannins are the problem. They are flavonoids in the wine that comes from the skins, stems, and seeds. The skin of reds which gives color to wine usually has more tannins than do whites. We ferment reds with the tannin-loaded skins and seeds; whereas, with whites we usually crush the whole clusters or individual grapes and ferment the juice. Wine can also pick up tannins from oak barrels which also need to be sulfured when unused to prevent contamination.
Tannins in big reds to include French reds, Port, Cabernet Sauvignon are usually high when young. These are filled into Bordeaux bottles with a hip shoulder on them; whereas, lower tannic Burgundy red wines (Pinot Noir, Sangiovese) are filled into sloped shoulder bottles along with Chardonnay and other whites which should give you an idea of tannin levels. Other possibilities for red wine headaches may be from the release of prostaglandins or from strains of certain yeast or bacteria found in wine. You can look up red wine headaches on the web for different over the counter remedies you can take an hour before drinking wine that may prevent headaches.
Back to sulfites. Renaissance winemakers, and probably before, burned sulfur and forced the fumes into barrels to sanitize them. It was legalized in 1487 by German royal decree. Fumigating barrels in this way could have over-sulfured barrels and affected the wine. Now with experience and food grade sulfur, winemakers have much more control over the product which is classified by the USDA as “generally regarded as safe”. When the grapes are brought into wineries and dumped into the auger at the crusher or later during fermentation, anywhere between 20-50ppm of potassium meta-bisulfate is added to control wild non-grape yeast and spoilage bacteria. This gives the native grape yeast from the vineyard, which we rely on in our winery, a head start in the fermentation process. Now with better sanitation and refrigeration amounts can be much less especially if your fruit and winery are clean.
Most all wines contain sulfites because sulfur dioxide is naturally produced during fermentation. The main thing that is checked throughout the wine process is the free sulfur dioxide level which should be around 25-35ppm at bottling which is a level that only the very sensitive person would pick up. After time in the bottle, the amount could be down to 5-10ppm depending on pH, sugars, varietals, and oxygen levels. Because there is always some sugar left in wine before it is bottled, if stray yeast gets in the bottle before capping and not checked with sulfur, we could have a lot of trouble on our hands.
Many growers spray or dust sulfur on grapes as a fungicide which adds more sulfur to the natural sulfur on the vines. Instead we use an organic mineral oil, same basic material as in lipstick, as our main fungicide to prevent Powdery Mildew. We also have cut down on the use of barrels, using mostly older neutrals, to less than 10% which minimizes the tannins absorbed from the wood into our wines.
For the most part, we use stainless steel tanks and FlexTanks which are polyurethane food grade tanks that lets in air but not out (passive micro-oxidation). These contained tanks allow us to keep more of the fruit flavor in the wine (not flavored with oak). They are much easier to store and sanitize than oak barrels which can get real funky and must be stored in cool storage (expensive) and sulfured when empty. We also don’t have to do the expensive and labor intensive top-off operations to make up for the “Angel’s Share” that escapes from barrels. So, in conclusion, we need sulfites in our wines to give you a fresh safe product and don’t buy into it is the reason for red wine headaches. By the way, the one you get 6 hours after drinking a bunch of wine is called a hangover!

Ivan: “Why do you take aspirin with Champagne?” Alice: “Oh, Champagne gives me a headache.” Author, Author (1982)

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AVILA VALLEY GRAPEVINE 7 – 11: CARD CHECK, IMMIGRATION

Posted on July 1, 2011 by John Salisbury

John Salisbury – inthevines.com
July 2011
California agriculture has some real possible tough sledding coming down the pike this summer. Revised Card Check, E-Verify, new regulations from the Water Quality Control Board & Air Resources Board, and increased audits by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service) just to name a few. Many of you probably think “way to go” but standing in front of the bull’s-eye most of us in agriculture are thinking of the old Charley Brown song and the part – “Why is everybody always picking on Me?
This Card Check idea is completely out of wack with our American ideals. It passed both the California Senate and Assembly. To his credit, it was just surprising vetoed by Governor Brown. The Los Angeles Times, of all papers, even urged Gov. Brown to veto it because they reported it only benefits the union and not the farm workers. This one-sided law would have allowed unions to wait in the fields, go to homes, or anywhere else farm laborers gather and sign up the people to form a union. Up to now, after petition signup, it has always been decided by the secret ballot process whereby the employee cannot be harassed by either side on which way to vote. That would have all changed with this law because a farmer would have to recognize a union just from the submission of petition cards signed by a simple majority of employees.
You can not tell me that these workers weren’t going to be pressured into signing after encountering these bounty hunters, probably fairly intimidating, who know where they and their families live. There were penalties in this new proposed law for employers if they tried to interfere with farm labor organizing efforts but none for the unions that might intimidate or coerce farm workers into signing up. Once signed with the farm worker’s address, which is a requirement to be on the petition, this information would also become public record and be on file with the State. That alone might keep some from signing up because ICE would also know where they live. If many of the farm workers in California are illegal, why and how can they even legally sign these petitions?
In any case, it sure puts them into an unnecessary tough position and against everything the Agricultural Labor Relations Law signed by Gov. Brown in 1975 has been about – a legal and fair secret up or down vote on union representation without fear or pay back. This was a short-cut last ditch attempt by the United Farm Workers who have been having trouble signing up workers. Along with E-verify of I-9 employment forms, which is a data bank which has already shown serious flaws, it would have put added pressure on employers to serve as immigration enforcers with nowhere to turn. “Damn if you do and damn if you don’t.”
Once again, it brings up the need for secure borders and a guest worker program that brings these workers out of the shadows to work in the fields under the protection of the government. Along with no guarantees for citizenship, they will be held accountable for taxes, driver’s licenses, insurance, place of residence and work, and not getting into trouble or face a quick ride to the border. It would let them go safely back and forth across the border and in time, for many, have enough money to stay home and start a business like many of the Braceros did decades ago. Mexico needs these comparatively cash-rich entrepreneurs to come home and start businesses.
It was only after the Bracero program was dissolved, and the border closed, did the workers start bringing their families across the border causing some of the social problems we have today. These farm workers would much rather live amongst their families and friends in Mexico and Central America, even if just seasonally, where their wages ($10+/hour/here versus $1/hour or less/there) buys so much more. A guest worker program fills the needs on both sides of the border.
Don’t start with me that we would be creating a second class of workers because that is what we have now. With an official guest worker program that would cease and these workers and employers would be held accountable. They would have option to go home anytime they want. Plus, we will know who they are, where they live, who is responsible for them, and tax them to offset their social costs. With all the unemployment in California, there are very few in that group looking for work in the fields that you drive by daily. I can tell you it is a .001% increase if that much. Face it; Americans will not do the work! Without these fine hard working family- oriented workers, your food prices would be astronomical.
Reforma, a Mexico City newspaper, did an article taking information from Mexican state and federal authorities, National Human Rights Commission, and newspaper articles reported that since 2007 at least 100,000 illegal immigrants (more than twice the size of San Luis Obispo) from Latin America were abducted and disappeared on their way through Mexico to our border. There was over 150 in one mass grave near my grandmother’s (Estrada) ancestral home outside of Durango, Mexico. These numbers do not even take into account the toll of Mexicans trying to cross the border and then disappeared thanks to the cartels controlling the border. Imagine the fear for these people, just trying to feed their families, that are accosted on both sides of the border by these thugs who beat, rob, rape, and kill. Then if they make it through that gauntlet, they still have to cross the hostile desert.
Read Joseph Wambaugh’s true story “Lines and Shadows“ to get an idea of what really happens at the border and this was written 30 years ago! It is time to make sense out of this mess and create at least some sort of a bridge to let in and control these workers of whom we are all so dependent. The sad truth is that nobody has the guts and nothing is going to be done for at least two years because of the upcoming elections. This problem should have been taken up before health care. Look for more of my take as a farmer on immigration.
As many of you know, we have trolley tours in the vineyard usually on Sundays in the summer after Schoolhouse Rock or anytime we can at least fill up half of the trolley. The idea is to get folks out to the vineyard and show them how, why, and what we do to produce fine wines. It constantly amazes me, I guess since our family has been doing this farming gig for over 160 years in California, that some people have never been on a farm nor have any idea where their food comes from. After reading part of the following Letter to the Editor, we need to promote more farm visits in agriculture because I fear this person is representive of way too many consumers. It started out in part writing about a controversy in San Francisco about the selling of live chickens near Chinatown and generated into this: “To all you hunters who kill animals for food, shame on you; you ought to go to the store and buy the meat that was made there, where no animals were harmed.” – nuff said!

“We could learn a lot from crayons… Some are sharp; some are pretty; and some are dull. Some have weird names; and all are different colors: but they all have to live in the same box.” – Anonymous.

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