In a few days, on April 3, I will be celebrating my two-year anniversary with the National Grape Research Alliance. In my time with NGRA, a lot has changed\u2014our name, most apparently. I\u2019ve changed, too.<\/p>\n
As most NGRA stakeholders know, I don\u2019t have a science background. My degrees are in psychology and English. I\u2019ve worked in the wine industry for a dozen years or so, but in marketing or organizational management.<\/p>\n
My first intersection with the work I do now was with the great Richie Pisacano, vineyard manager at W\u00f6lffer Estate Vineyard on Long Island, NY. While prepping for a media interview on sustainable viticulture, he explained to me what he\u2019d been doing that day: counting spider mites on a grape leaf, monitoring the number every day to assess the need to spray or not. Natural predators of the mites\u2014other bugs or birds\u2014would likely take care of them, he said, but if not, he\u2019d need to apply insecticide. The patience! The confidence in Mother Nature! (And the readiness with backup!) It would be a great example to give the reporter. And it was the moment I really related to what I now know as applied research\u2014and loved it.<\/p>\n
Still, two years ago, I couldn\u2019t have explained marker-assisted breeding or variable rate management. I didn\u2019t know what Xylella fastidiosa was, and couldn\u2019t have used \u201chyphae\u201d in a sentence. I had never heard of a Geneva Double Curtain, a germplasm repository, Gibberellic acid or a CAP grant. I often say that gaining an understanding of research has been like learning a new language, or watching a movie with subtitles. Suddenly you realize that, somewhere along the line, you began to get it, without knowing. Today, I can even (cautiously) speak the language myself.<\/p>\n
I am grateful to have worked with people like Richie and, now, all of you who have helped me to gain a wealth of knowledge\u2014and believed that, with it, I could help you advance the industry. I have a lot more to learn. But given the stature of the U.S. grape and wine industry, and the caliber of American academic institutions for viticulture and enology, it\u2019s clear that I have some of the best mentors in the world!<\/p>\n
Donnell Brown
\nPresident, NGRA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a few days, on April 3, I will be celebrating my two-year anniversary with the National Grape Research Alliance. In my time with NGRA, a lot has changed\u2014our name, most apparently. I\u2019ve changed, too. As most NGRA stakeholders know, I don\u2019t have a science background. My degrees are in psychology and English. I\u2019ve worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ngwi-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2908,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions\/2908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}