{"id":5027,"date":"2024-08-28T22:01:16","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T22:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/?p=5027"},"modified":"2024-08-28T22:01:16","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T22:01:16","slug":"community-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/2024\/08\/28\/community-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

I did a radio interview<\/strong><\/a> with the Pacific Northwest Ag Network recently, where I talked about NGRA\u2019s community-building ethic. I told host Glenn Vaagen that a vital part of our research mission is to \u201cbuild a sense of community around people who believe in science as a means of advancing the industry.\u201d Among the joys of my job, I said, are gathering NGRA members and stakeholders at meetings and events, introducing scientists who may have similar research interests but have never met and, yes, sharing research news via this monthly newsletter. These are the ways we put our arms around industry stakeholders, and academic and government representatives, building bridges and bonds among them so we can solve grape and wine industry problems together.<\/p>\n

I sometimes worry that these kinds of statements sound like marketing fluff\u2014too nice, too Pollyanna\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>to be true. But it\u2019s honestly the better part of my job. We all know that collective action is more powerful than going it alone. We\u2019ve all experienced brainstorming exercises that yield much richer and more robust ideas than you could\u2019ve thought of on your own. We\u2019ve undoubtedly had the joy and relief of finally connecting with someone who can help open a door that previously stood closed. There\u2019s no better way to achieve our research needs than by raising a tent and inviting others to join us inside.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019m a fixture at so many industry and academic conferences, and why I make the time for things like the production tour the NGRA-supported Vitis<\/em><\/strong>Gen3 project<\/strong><\/a> arranged for its scientific collaborators this month in California\u2019s San Joaquin Valley. (See photo above.) The majority of our members have been with us since the beginning,<\/strong><\/a> before we were NGRA, or NGWI (the National Grape and Wine Initiative) or the Winegrower\u2019s Critical Research Investment Initiative. They tell me it\u2019s because of our strong sense of community. People matter.<\/p>\n

NGRA is the only national-level organization that represents the research needs of all sectors of the grape and wine industry\u2014wine, juice, table grapes and raisins\u2014nationwide. Behind that statement, there are thousands of people who make a difference on whether and how we meet our collective challenges. If you\u2019re a member of NGRA (or would like to be<\/strong><\/a>), thank you\u2014your contributions make the work possible. If you\u2019ve ever made a donation to NGRA (or want to make one now<\/strong><\/a>), you help move the needle on how fast and far we can go. If you\u2019re an academic or government scientist or administrator, we know that research isn\u2019t possible without you.<\/p>\n

You are our community. And there\u2019s always more room under the tent.<\/p>\n

Donnell Brown<\/strong>
\nPresident<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I did a radio interview with the Pacific Northwest Ag Network recently, where I talked about NGRA\u2019s community-building ethic. I told host Glenn Vaagen that a vital part of our research mission is to \u201cbuild a sense of community around people who believe in science as a means of advancing the industry.\u201d Among the joys […]<\/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-5027","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\/5027","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=5027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5028,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5027\/revisions\/5028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}