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When I started this blog, back in May of 2011, I did so after a career in health information and specifically as editor in chief of DNA.com, working on cancer genetics with hot shot scientists from blue chip institutions. A company founded to search for new genetic tests, it was the brainchild of Jim Clark, an A List venture capital maverick. DNA Sciences was funded and created to marry the Human Genome Project and the internet. The first day I arrived, the company was on the front page of the New York Times. High profile.
Clark had earlier started WebMD (as well as Netscape), so I became the editor of all things genetic health on WebMD as well as DNA.com, where we had a deep bench of amazing scientists on staff as well as colleagues from many prestigious institutions. For example, DNA discoverer James Watson was on the board. No pressure, Pam, LOL.
In my work there, I wrote cheatsheets for doctors, worked with the American Medical Associations genetics leaders, and launched online radio shows with celebrated experts.
Experts told me, "Genetics aren't the main engine of cancer; non-genetic factors, including the environment, are."
So when that editorial position ended (in the mayhem so typical of Silicon Valley ventures), I started to look around for what was next.
A trip to Napa with a friend who lived in Calistoga at the time led to interest in wine.
Morning coffee with cancer research friends from Commonweal let to my discovery of the Pesticide Use Report, which transfixed me. It was like a secret X-Ray into the soul of wine country, a soul that was pretty dark at that time. Regenerative ag was not yet a thing. And Roundup was not yet in the vocabulary of wine writers.
I remember meeting many WSET types, who reminded me of my art history classes in college. Learn about 50-100 adjectives, and repeat. I never met anyone who had heard of glyphosate or who read the Pesticide Use Report (PUR). (I recommend revising the WSET courses and MW and MS tests to remedy that gap.)
Back then I was enamored of Huey Johnson, a "green plans" environmental leader, and when I learned his former staffer was working on making the wine industry more sustainable, I wanted to know more.
I went on a tour at a winery owned by a Napa Green president, where I was told of bird boxes and other green initiatives.
Imagine my disappointment when I looked that winery up on the PUR and saw it used bird and bee neurotoxins. I had help from a wonderful scientist, Susan Kegley (who was chief scientist for Pesticide Action Network at the time), who generously identified the chemicals of concern in Napa and Sonoma and further afield. She even took me to a high level PUR meeting in Sacramento where power users conferred with the PUR database guardians to improve features.
I spent countless hours on OMRI, learning which of the lovely chemical products were approved for organic use and which were not.
I am grateful for teachers like Susan.
Another person who was a great help to me was Volker Eisele, proclaimed as the "lion of land preservation," and featured in James Conaway's Napa books.
I was delighted to see Jack Davies in the first of Conaway's trilogy (link to second book here). Davies was my father's roommate at Harvard Business School way back when.
I learned more about deeper environmental history roots and the history of the ag preserve.
It seemed odd to me that people in the wine industry looked upon organic viticulture as a surefire way to lose money. The more I looked into it, I dropped my "Debbie Downer" phase (so many pesticides!) and saw other wineries doing great work, winning above average awards and scores and succeeding in their businesses. It was a curious gap in perceptions.
As I dug into what was happening in the wine industry, I felt there needed to be a newsy site to track the names of people doing good work under organic certification and to give voice to these wineries who didn't seem to have any association or organization. (They still don't in the U.S.) It's been quite an education–and involved a lot of wine education and wine drinking and new friends and colleagues. It also coincides with the pleasure of tracking improvements in the industry. As well as the greater impacts of climate change.
When I think back on 12 years of writing in this blog, I am amazed at the distance we've come. The world is indeed changing. The wheel is turning. That's a good thing...and something to celebrate.
Thanks for all the clicks.
And for all those wineries doing great work promoting soil health and employee health – A Great Big Thanks.
May it continue.
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