16 CapitalPress.com
October 21, 2016
Millennials gravitate to high-end wines, survey inds
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
DAVIS, Calif. — Today’s
graduate students and young
professionals are following in
the footsteps of baby boomers
in their preference of high-
er-value wines, a new survey
has found.
Many millennials — mem-
bers of the generation born
between the early 1980s and
the late 1990s — are “food-
ies” who have incorporated
good wines into their quest
for new experiences related to
food, according to a survey by
Robert Smiley, a University
of California-Davis professor
and dean emeritus.
The industry must retain
them as customers by focus-
ing on sophisticated market-
ing and communication, the
survey found.
Smiley and his colleagues
Capital Press File
This photo shows winegrapes ready for processing. A new study
shows today’s millennials are following in the footsteps of baby
boomers in their preference of higher-value wines.
conducted the 14th annual
survey of the heads of 27 wine
companies and 150 Califor-
nia wine professionals about
trends in the industry.
Among the survey’s oth-
er indings, according to a
UC-Davis news release:
• Most executives remain
conident in the health of
the industry but are also tak-
ing precautions, including
downsizing wine inventories,
strengthening their supply
chain and mechanizing to re-
duce labor expenses.
• Water and climate-change
concerns have prompted ex-
ecutives to purchase only
vineyards with good access
to water, choose only vigor-
ous, water-eficient rootstock
and invest in water-eficient
technology. They’re also con-
sidering the vineyard devel-
opment in Oregon and Wash-
ington.
• Labor availability and
increasing input costs were of
greatest concern.
The indings regarding
millennials are consistent with
past studies by Smiley’s team
as well as by groups such as
the San Francisco-based Wine
Institute and the Sacramen-
to-based California Associa-
tion of Winegrape Growers.
The trend toward premium
wines has been a big factor
in the growth, Wine Institute
spokeswoman Gladys Horiu-
chi said.
“I think it all contributes
to the mix,” she said, noting
that many restaurants pop-
ular with “foodie” consum-
ers offer higher-end, locally
produced wines. “There’s
a lot of this farm-to-ta-
ble trend in restaurants, for
sure.”
The improving economy in
some sectors has given many
millennials the spending pow-
er to enjoy higher-end wines
more frequently than just on
special occasions, Smiley has
said.
Smiley and other UC-Da-
vis researchers have en-
couraged wineries to invest
in their quality lines and in
branding, noting that industry
professionals expect wines
in the $14- to $20-per-bottle
price range to demonstrate
the strongest sales in the near
term.
Wine production in Cali-
fornia has become ever more
lucrative despite the linger-
ing drought, which caused
the quantity of last year’s
overall grape crush to be
slightly lower than that of
2014.
Brisk sales were a factor
in increasing vineyard acre-
age in the state from 2009
to 2014, from 531,000 acres
to 615,000, industry insiders
said.
The industry is in the home
stretch of harvesting what
is expected to be a 3.9 mil-
lion-ton winegrape crop — an
increase of 5 percent from
2015, according to the Na-
tional Agricultural Statistics
Service.
Stink bugs spread Congress mulls plan to lood Wash. farmland
makes plan
across Washington Agency
for farms
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — An
increase in brown marmorat-
ed stink bugs has scientists
concerned the Asian pest
could threaten tree fruit and
other crops in Eastern Wash-
ington next year.
In recent weeks, research-
ers have captured hundreds
of the bugs in traps, mostly
in Yakima and Walla Walla.
One pheromone-baited trap
outside a Yakima residence
collected nearly 200 bugs in
ive days, said Michael Bush,
Washington State University
Extension entomologist.
“That compares to 36
we captured for all of 2015
throughout Yakima County,
so it’s quite a jump,” he said.
WSU Extension agents
and master gardeners are
getting more calls from
people inding the bugs in
their homes and ofices as
they escape the fall chill, he
said.
The bugs are so named
because they emit a smell of
dirty socks when crushed.
Called “the Beast of the
East,” it was identiied in
Pennsylvania in 1996 and
caused an estimated 30 per-
cent loss in apple and peach
crops in the mid-Atlantic
states in 2010.
Growers there resorted
to broad-spectrum synthet-
ic pyrethroid pesticides to
control the bugs at the ex-
pense of their integrated pest
management programs, said
Elizabeth Beers, entomol-
ogist at the WSU Tree Fruit
Research and Extension Cen-
ter in Wenatchee. She’s on
a national team of scientists
ighting it.
The bugs were found in
Portland in 2004 and lat-
er in the Willamette Valley,
Medford, Hood River and
Vancouver. In 2012, traps
irst caught two bugs in
Yakima.
The insect has more than
300 host plants and spreads
by human movement.
Beers said it’s natural for
the bugs to increase but that
they seem to like moist cli-
mates such as Portland’s and
Vancouver’s. Nonetheless,
they are well established
in Yakima and Walla Wal-
la and have been found in
Wenatchee.
Brown marmorated
stink bug
Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org
Binomial name:
Halyomorpha halys
Appearance: Shield shaped and
dark, mottled brown
Diet: Primarily tree fruits
Life cycle: One or two
generations in cooler climates;
up to five in
warmer ones
Origin: Asia
First
observed
in U.S.:
14-17 mm
(Actual size)
Mid-1990s
Sources: Penn State Extension;
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Capital Press graphic
“I am very concerned,”
Beers said. “I work with tree
fruit and it’s considered one
of the highest, at-risk crops.
I’m not sure why.
It eats lots of things and
apples are very prone to at-
tack.”
Peaches, nectarines and
pears are probably more vul-
nerable than cherries, she
said.
Broad-spectrum
pyre-
throid pesticides are an op-
tion in the event of a large
outbreak, but growers could
also sacriice a tree by bait-
ing bugs there and spraying
it, Beers said.
Netting already used for
weather protection is an op-
tion, and so is biological con-
trol, she said.
Over a year ago, an Asian
wasp, Trissolcus Japonicus,
which eats brown marmorat-
ed stink bug eggs, was found
in Vancouver and is better
able to combat the bugs than
native egg parasitoids, Beers
said.
“It’s probably not a sil-
ver bullet, but it may help
keep populations down to
a dull roar,” she said. “It
could help prevent an ex-
plosion but won’t eradicate
it.”
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Federal lawmakers may
authorize the Army Corps of
Engineers to pursue a $451.6
million project to convert
hundreds of acres of private-
ly owned farmland into Puget
Sound ish habitat, unsettling
to a farmer who owns prop-
erty vital to the government’s
designs.
“It’s deinitely, deinitely
in the back of my mind, all
the time,” said Scott Bedling-
ton, third-generation What-
com County farmer. “I have
to farm. That’s what we live
off.”
The corps and the Wash-
ington Department of Fish
and Wildlife propose to inun-
date 2,100 acres in Whatcom,
Skagit and Jefferson counties,
including by removing dikes
protecting farms.
The looded land would
include about 800 acres of
Whatcom County farmland
and about 250 acres of Skagit
County farmland.
The corps and WDFW
spent 15 years and $22 mil-
lion developing the Puget
Sound Nearshore Restoration
Project.
The corps forwarded the
plan to Congress last month.
The plan calls for $293.6 mil-
lion in federal funding and
$158 million in state funding
over about 10 years.
The U.S. House recently
included the project in its ver-
sion of the Water Resources
Development Act, a list of
corps’ projects eligible for
funding.
The Senate, however, left
the project out.
The Washington Farm Bu-
reau hopes House and Senate
negotiators will drop the proj-
ect from the compromise bill.
Farm Bureau government
relations director Tom Davis
said the agencies didn’t con-
sult with the farmers whose
land the project depends upon.
“They are asking Congress
to authorize a project that
would destroy prime farm-
land without talking to the
landowners,” he said. “It’s
disrespectful. It’s just assum-
ing everybody is going to go
along with their bright idea.”
Bedlington, who grows
seed potatoes, estimates the
plan would inundate 700 to
800 acres he owns or rents.
He said he told WDFW of-
icials at a meeting arranged
by the Farm Bureau that his
farm wasn’t for sale.
Hunt suspended for remaining wolfpack members
State unclear whether it
will resume after sport
hunting season ends
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Washington wildlife managers have
halted their hunt for the surviving mem-
bers of a wolfpack preying on cattle, but
it was unclear Wednesday whether the
operation will resume, sources said.
State wildlife managers have provided
no information since Oct. 6 on their at-
tempt to remove the Profanity Peak pack
in Ferry County.
At the time, the Washington Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife said attacks on
livestock were likely to continue unless
the pack’s lone surviving adult and several
pups were killed.
Ferry County Commissioner Mike
Blankenship said he learned from the
county sheriff Tuesday that WDFW won’t
look for the wolves during a two-week
hunting season that began Saturday.
WDFW has not told the county wheth-
er the operation will start up again, he said.
“They have failed to answer that ques-
tion,” he said. “We don’t have any clear
decision-making going on.”
Efforts to get comment and an update
from WDFW were unsuccessful.
WDFW has released bare details since
beginning the lethal-removal operation
Aug. 4. At irst, the department roughly
followed its policy and provided weekly
updates. But the updates have become
more sporadic.
Blankenship said a pause makes
sense for hunter safety, but that he hopes
WDFW returns after that even though the
grazing season is ending.
County commissioners have been
calling for the pack’s removal since 2014.
“My fear is they don’t inish the job,”
Blankenship said. “The wolves that are
left will train the next batch.”
Scott Nielsen, vice president of the
Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has killed several members of the Pro-
fanity Peak wolfpack. The hunt has now been suspended.
Cattle Producers of Washington, agreed
WDFW should be concerned about hunt-
er safety, but he also criticized the depart-
ment for failing to remove the pack over
the past two months.
“They never do what they tell us that
they’re going to do,” he said. “If I say I’m
going to do something and I come close,
I think my boss would call that a failure.”
Nielsen said the pack’s surviving
members might join another pack. “It’s
a depredating pack of wolves still out
there,” he said.
WDFW decided in August to move
against the pack. WDFW investigators
have conirmed the pack has attacked 10
cattle since July 8. In another ive attacks,
WDFW determined the pack was proba-
bly responsible. Ranchers say the number
of conirmed and probable depredations
represent only a fraction of their actual
losses.
So far, WDFW has reported shooting
six adult wolves, leaving one female.
WDFW has also killed one pup. WDFW
has said previously that the pack may still
have three pups.
The shootings have outraged some
environmental groups, which say wolves
should have priority over cattle grazing
on public lands.
Most of the Profanity Peak pack’s at-
tacks on cattle have occurred on grazing
allotments in the Colville National For-
est.
Blankenship said the state’s wolf re-
covery plan is at the heart of the problem.
Wolves will remain a state-protected
species until they are established state-
wide. So far, wolves have remained
mostly concentrated in the northeastern
corner of Washington and recovery goals
appear to be several years away from be-
ing met.
In the meantime, the state’s plan is to
consider shooting wolves after four con-
irmed depredations.
Blankenship said wolves had to attack
cattle as deer became scarcer.
“The only thing wolves had to feed
on were the cows — was that fair to
wolves?” he asked.
Blankenship said that as cattle leave
grazing grounds, the wolves may come
closer to populated areas, posing a risk to
public safety.
Agricultural groups criticize Dannon’s sustainability pledge
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Leading farm organizations are
calling out yogurt-giant Dannon in
its pledge to move to GMO-free
feed in its milk-supply chain, call-
ing the pledge “marketing limlam”
and a step backward in truly sus-
tainable food production.
The criticism revolves around a
corporate commitment by Dannon
in April to work with dairy farmers
to implement sustainable practices
and technology, to use nonsynthet-
ic and non-GMO ingredients, and
label the presence of GMO ingredi-
ents in its products.
The ag groups contend that
pledge is the exact opposite of the
sustainable agriculture Dannon
seems to be seeking and will force
farmers to abandon safe, sustain-
able practices that have enhanced
farm productivity over the past 20
years while greatly reducing the
carbon footprint of American agri-
culture.
The American Farm Bureau Fed-
eration, National Milk Producers
Federation, National Corn Grow-
ers Association, American Soybean
Association, American Sugarbeet
Growers Association and U.S.
Farmers and Ranchers Alliance sent
a letter stating their dismay and
concern to Dannon CEO Mariano
Lozano on Oct. 17.
Crops improved with biotech-
nology are more sustainable than
the crops farmers use to grow and a
return to conventional crops would
lead to more pesticide use, increased
water and fossil fuel use, increased
erosion and a need for more crop-
land to make up for yield losses, ac-
cording to the ag organizations.
They stated Dannon’s pledge
“appears to be an attempt to gain
lost sales from your competitors
by using fear-based marketing and
trendy buzzwords, not through an
actual improvement of your prod-
uct.”
“Such disingenuous tactics and
marketing puffery are certainly not
becoming of a company as well
known and respected as Dannon,”
the groups stated.
They question whether Dannon
would return to 1990s computer
technology to run its business or
revert to 20-year-old transportation,
processing or packaging tools.
“Why then … would you require
farmers to go back to old, ineficient
and less effective cropping practic-
es?” they asked.
In response to a request for com-
ment, Dannon sent Capital Press
a written response, saying it was
surprised to receive a divisive and
misinformed letter about its efforts
to continue to grow America’s en-
joyment of dairy products. It also
stated Dannon believes current-
ly approved GMOs are safe and
sustainable ag practices can be
achieved with or without the use of
GMOs.
“However, we believe there is a
growing preference for non-GMO
ingredients and food in the U.S.
and we want to use the strong rela-
tionships we have with our farmer
partners to provide products that ad-
dress this consumer demand.”
Dannon’s changes will enable
consumers to make everyday choic-
es consistent with their wish for
more natural and sustainable op-
tions, choosing which agricultural
an environmental model they favor,
the company stated.
Dannon CEO Lozano stated the
range of choice that Dannon pro-
vides — from organic and non-
GMO ingredients to conventional
dairy — “is a reason to celebrate
rather than criticize.”
The farm groups have requested
Dannon revise its pledge to recog-
nize the sustainability, safety and
environmental beneit of food bio-
technology.