<
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18032026/california-wine-label-promotes-workers-rights/>
"When Cary Quintana learned about a new initiative to promote fair treatment
and safe conditions for vineyard workers, the Northern California winemaker
immediately signed on.
Quintana has partnered with organic and sustainable vineyards for the
dozen-plus years she’s run Cary Q Wines, where her minimalist approach to
winemaking accents the distinctive features of the Sonoma County soil and
climate the grapes are grown in. She’s always favored growers who treat their
vineyard workers at least as well as they tend their grapevines. So she didn’t
hesitate when two social justice organizations invited her to collaborate on a
new wine label—Guardian Vital—that requires ethical labor practices along with
chemical-free farming.
It’s the first label to showcase the people who pick the grapes, rather than
the grapes that go into the wine.
Quintana thinks most people in the wine industry are so focused on producing
high-quality grapes they don’t think about the welfare of the people picking
them. Yet vineyard workers are confronting ever-more hazardous conditions as
the planet warms.
Climate change places outdoor workers at increased risk of heat-related illness
and death, making agricultural work, where laborers sustain up to five times
more fatal injuries than other professions, even more dangerous. Yet research
has not kept pace with this rising risk: a search of the scientific literature
shows nearly 250 times more studies assessing the effects of heat stress on
grapevines than on vineyard workers.
“We’re missing the mark on the people,” Quintana said.
Quintana is choosing grape varieties with higher acidity to balance the higher
sugar levels caused by rising temperatures. She wants winemakers to realize
that those hotter conditions are also affecting workers, who need adequate
water, shelter and breaks to stay safe during heatwaves.
She hopes the Guardian Vital label will help both industry insiders and
consumers understand what she said should be obvious: wine can’t exist without
the people who harvest the grapes.
Toward that end, Quintana plans to release two Guardian Vital wines in June: a
white made from the Spanish grape variety Xarel-lo, and a red, made from
cinsault, a heat-tolerant grape commonly planted in southern France."
Via
Reasons to be Cheerful:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-were-reading-lessons-from-grandmother-cacao/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
