Winegrower Perceptions of Sustainability Programs in Lodi, California

Established in 1995, the Lodi Winegrape Comission’s (LWC) Sustainable Winegrowing Program (SWP) promotes grower adoption of best management practices via informational meetings, workshops, vineyard demonstrations and research, the Lodi Winegrowers’ Workbook for sustainability self-assessment, and the Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing third-party certification program. Understanding grower perceptions of agriculture programs like the LWC is important because similar organizations are operating at the state level (California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, CWSA), in other winegrowing regions, and in other agricultural commodities. This research brief presents results from a mail survey and semi-structured interviews of winegrape growers to evaluate the success of the LWC from the perspective of growers themselves. Survey respondents identify whether or not they participate in various LWC outreach and education activities, how successful they think the LWC has been across a range of objectives, and the degree to which they support local and statewide programs.