His film, Children of the Vine, is showing at the Sonoma International Film Festival Thursday, March 24, and Saturday, March 26 at 11:30 am both days.
He's scored interviews from an impressive roster of people who have been involved in the ongoing law suits against Monsanto. That includes:
• Carey Gillam, the former Reuters reporter who followed Monsanto's abuses (and who was targeted by Monsanto) and then wrote the definitive book Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science
• Brent Wisner, the attorney who represented several of the people suing Monsanto over exposures that led to getting cancer (NHL)
I'll be attending the film on Thursday and look forward to learning more.
Edwin Hardeman was a Sonoma resident who sued Monsanto successfully, after using Roundup repeatedly to control poison oak on his Santa Rosa property.
Most of those who sued the company and won were residential users or landscapers. (I asked the lawyers involved for instance of vineyard employees who were victims and could not find information about any cases that fit that profile).
The primary risks for glyphosate documented in peer reviewed literature show that ingesting it affects gut bacteria adversely. The biggest risks to date appear to be conventionally grown foods–grains, which are often sprayed at harvest time with Roundup as a desiccant, and potatoes. Eating an organic diet is the best defense, experts say.
Organic vintners from Napa are also featured in the film.
Napa continues to use Roundup widely as does Sonoma. Here are maps from the California State Dept. of Public Health showing where both types of glyphosate are sprayed on wine grapes (2018 data, the most recent available) in northern California. You can search for other regions here: https://trackingcalifornia.org/pesticides/pesticide-mapping-tool
Sustainability programs in Napa and Sonoma do not prohibit wineries from using herbicides except for a new "Gold" designation for Napa Green which includes 7 wineries which do not use any herbicides on their own grapes or grapes they buy. Five additional Gold members of Napa Green do not use herbicides on a portion of their vineyards but do grow or purchase grapes that do, making this attempt at a consumer friendly classification system confusing to use. Therefore consumers would have to ask those producers on wines on a wine by wine basis.
The only guarantee that consumers have that toxic herbicides (and fungicides, insecticides and synthetic fertilizers) are not used is organic or biodynamic certification. Even then consumers need to know whether the winery is 100 percent organic or not. About half of the producers in the US who make organically grown wines also make conventionally farmed wines, so consumers need to research this carefully.
While labeling provides certainty, many organically grown wines in Napa and Sonoma are not labeled with organic certification. Those who do label (applause, applause) include: Grgich Hills, Horse & Plow, Neal Family, Ridge, Storybook Mountain Vineyards, and Volker Eisele.
Enjoy the trailer here:
And, lest we forget, it's not just the Roundup and glyphosate based herbicides that we should worry about. There's paraquat...1 in 8 acres of California wine grapes are sprayed with paraquat, which we know much more about (and its history of causing serious, obvious cancers) and bee- and bird-killing insecticides, including imidacloprid and other neonics.
In 2018, the state of California reported that wine grape growers used 666,953 pounds of glyphosate-based herbicides on 402,184 acres of vines. Glufosinate ammonium was also widely used, with 254,928 pounds used on 291,835 acres of vines. (California has about 550,000 acres of wine grape vineyards).
Growers used 40,669 pounds of the fungicide boscalid, a bird and bee toxin, on 163,741 acres across the state.
Other parts of the wine world are showing us that successful wine growers are getting rid of Roundup, especially in France.
Why would anyone knowingly buy poisoned wine?
ReplyDelete