Science Can Save Us.

The last week of January typically means the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento, as it did this year. Walking through the massive Exhibit Hall, it’s easy to see the results of research and development in the mammoth equipment and sophisticated services on display. But that’s probably not the lens most folks are looking through.

We tend to take for granted the tools and knowledge that improve our vineyards, grapes, juice and wine. If you’re reading this from your desk or dashboard, look out at your vineyard. Notice the row spacing and orientation, cover crops and soil amendments, improved varieties, trellising, irrigation, harvesters, sprayers, sorters and more. These things didn’t fall from the sky! Most were invented by government researchers and university scientists, whose work to develop, test and trial their ideas was most likely funded, at least in part, by federal dollars. But over the last year, the research enterprise has been shaken by funding freezes and firings at the federal level. A number of recent articles—two highlighted here—underscore the power of research that public money delivers for our greater good.

In December, in an opinion piece about the U.S. military, The New York Times Editorial Board points out that American innovation was once viewed as part of the country’s innate strength. “Cold War strategists knew that deterring the Soviet Union required preserving America’s scientific and technological edge, which in turn called for national investments in research and development and partnerships with American universities.” The Board cites the example of “the first modern computer, ENIAC, (which) was developed for the Army at the University of Pennsylvania.” It’s important to acknowledge the part science played in America’s competitiveness and prominence on the world stage. And considering how deeply embedded modeling, AI, decision support systems and other types of computing are in farming today, it’s useful to note agriculture’s reliance on computer science.

Also in December, a group of scientists writing in Science Societies’ CSA News endeavored to imagine a world without agricultural research, specifically. “Scientific research is critical for developing new solutions to protect crops from escalating threats posed by pests, diseases and climate extremes. Without continuous scientific intervention and the development of new solutions, the challenges faced by farming communities will only intensify,” they write. This is a war of a different kind, playing out among the vine rows as we speak!

“Higher temperatures, increased CO₂ levels and fluctuating weather patterns accelerate the rate at which exotic pests enter and establish in (new) regions, (and) increase the rate of evolution of existing pest populations,” they add. “The unpredictable nature of the interactions among weather, cropping systems, and pests means that reliance solely on existing management strategies, such as the overwhelming use of pesticides, risks complete failure. Thus, without new, proactive scientific strategies, including the development of resilient cropping systems, breeding for resistance and advanced international monitoring, crops face substantially increased risks of yield loss, potentially rising from losses already accounting for more than 40% worldwide.”

Of course, research is expensive. But the cost of not doing research—whether financially or competitively—is too great to fathom. For an industry in distress, that’s a vital point to remember.

The incredible display of R&D at Unified is a kind of triumph over our collective grape and wine industry issues. It’s something to celebrate…and protect. Guarding against threats imminent and untold is just a matter of science. The future of grape research is in our hands. Join us and change the world.

Donnell Brown
President