Sustainable Agriculture

Vinecology researcher John Williams published a paper recently in the online journal Carbon Balance and Management. He and coauthors found that vineyard landscapes that include both vines and native vegetation provide more environmental benefits than vineyards planted solidly in grapevines.

The summary of our TNC funded international workshop on biodiversity in vineyard landscapes has been published in the attached document.

The attached documents on practices and programs are from Mark Lubell's NSF funded Sustainable Viticulture project (read more here), which will be discussed on Wednesday in depth.

Meeting Location: Buehler Alumni and Visitor's Center -- Founder's Room (38.535137 N, -121.74824 W)

Please find parking just south of the building. If you need a parking pass, please contact us.

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Their purpose...
To foster the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming systems

Their mission...

* To sponsor research related to organic farming;
* To disseminate research results to organic farmers and to growers interested in adopting organic production systems; and
* To educate the public and decision-makers about organic farming issues.

The University of California, Agricultural and Natural Resources, Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program's website is a valuable resource for managing pests in agricultural crops.

In the following link, they present a comprehensive guide to managing pests organically.

Natural Enemies Handbook:
The Illustrated Guide to Biological Pest Control:

* combine cultural, physical, and chemical methods with biological control
* minimize pesticide impacts on natural enemies
* release natural enemies and enhance their activity
* identify, and use natural enemies to control pests in almost any agricultural crop, garden, and landscape

The UC SAREP Cover Crop Database includes over 5,000 items gleaned from more than 600 separate sources, including journal articles, conference proceedings, standard textbooks, unpublished data, and personal communications from researchers and farmers. The information in the database concerns the management and effects of more than 32 species of plants usable as cover crops. More than 400 different cover crop images are also available for viewing online. The database was developed with funding from USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program (SARE), the State of California's Water Resources Control Board, and the California Energy Commission.

This material comes from the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. Please see the links below to the source of this information.

Organic grape production provides a fairly predictable economic return in irrigated parts of the arid West. In the East, organic grape production is complicated by a climate that fosters insect and disease problems. Production is compounded by consumer preferences for grape cultivars (both dessert and wine grapes) that are difficult to grow in the East. This guide presents organic management options for diseases, insects and weeds, discusses cultivar choices in terms of disease resistance, and briefly presents marketing ideas for eastern labrusca-type grapes and organic wines. References and an appendix on disease resistance rating follow the narrative.