November brought the most intensive travel schedule I’ve attempted since before the pandemic. Across three weeks and three states (Texas, Arkansas and California), I attended three conferences; hosted NGRA’s Year-End Board meeting and dinner; toured beautiful (and tasty) Arkansas Wine Country and sampled muscadine grapes and wine, both for the first time. Here are some […]
Projects Underway
What’s Really Scary…
Happy Halloween! This evening will bring kids to your door seeking tricks or treats. Mostly, their costumes will reflect cultural themes, like characters from movies or comics. And often, those characters and costumes have some unfortunate tie to science. Much to the chagrin of those of who care about and support research, science is the […]
$10M SCRI Project Seeks to Defy Diseases
A team of researchers received the first round of funding from a $10 million grant awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) to begin a multi-disciplinary, collaborative project focused on cultivating disease-resistant grapes that can be grown sustainably with reduced pesticide and fossil fuel use. The national, multi-institutional project […]
Economics Makes Cents
Featured in the September 2022 NGRA Update With rampant inflation and looming recession, supply chain disruptions and stock market fluctuations making headlines every day, economics is having a moment. Just google the word “economy” and you’ll see what I mean. It’s so ubiquitous in today’s parlance, you might forget that economics is a science. I […]
Nominations Now Open for the 2023 Rich Smith Award
Nominations Due November 16, 2022 Richard (Rich) Smith, founder of Valley Farm Management, Paraiso Vineyards and Smith Family Wines in California’s Santa Lucia Highlands wine region, was first and foremost a family man, and also a successful grape grower, winery owner and respected colleague. He was a highly effective, collegial and tireless leader whose significant and selfless contributions of […]
Announcing the NGRA Fellowship and Introducing Our 2022 Fellow
Abby Hammermeister of UC Davis Wins Three-Year Award with Research Focusing on Understanding Grapevine Stress Response to Heat and Drought Fellowship to Seed Long-Lasting Relationships with Early-Career Grape Scientists August 8, 2022 (Sacramento, CA) – In Spring 2022, the National Grape Research Alliance (NGRA) announced the NGRA Fellowship, offering $30,000 per year for up to […]
Lucky 13
Introducing Our Inaugural NGRA Fellow I’m superstitious. Black cats, ladders, dropped dishtowels, the whole nine yards. I realize I probably shouldn’t admit this to an audience of science-minded people, but it’s relevant here—stick with me. Another thing I probably shouldn’t admit is, when we announced our new NGRA Fellowship, we weren’t sure what kind of […]
Finetuning the Grapevine Stress-Response Picture for Irrigation
By Abby Hammermeister, 2022 NGRA Fellow Water scarcity already threatens sustainable agriculture in arid regions of the western U.S., and changing climatic conditions will make matters worse. Reduced water availability forces growers to employ conservation techniques like deficit irrigation. This practice induces water stress in plants that decreases growth and yield, but is often used […]
Conference Nirvana
June may bring the start of summer and the longest day of the year, but its highlight this year was the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) National Conference and Climate Change Symposium. The two-part event was set in San Diego—a picture-postcard for the season. But despite what you might be thinking (boondoggle!), it […]
Care About Research? Represent the Northwest Region on Our Board
NGRA Seeks a Northwest Regional Board Representative Does research matter to you? Does science drive your business and decisions? Is innovation the key to advancing the grape and wine industry? Step up to represent the Northwest Region on the Board of Directors of the National Grape Research Alliance as a grower or producer in Alaska, […]