Tired of watching their cash crop die on the vine, grape growers throughout the region have taken their frustration to the courts, where they are suing to recover significant losses they say have been inflicted by a cotton herbicide.
For those who may be unaware, the South Plains has become a grape-growing region of some renown. According to statistics, more than 85% of all the wine grapes grown in the state are grown within an hour of Lubbock, meaning the South Plains plays a significant role in the state's $13.1 billion wine industry.
Casting a literal pall over things, according to area grape growers, is a relatively new weed-killing herbicide called dicamba that was sold to cotton growers by Bayer-Monsanto and BASF in 2015 and 2016. They say the drifting dicamba is responsible for huge losses throughout the area with some family-owned vineyards reporting losses in excess of 90%.
The Texas High Plains is also home to approximately 3 million acres of cotton, and two-thirds of the acreage was, according to the suit, sprayed with the herbicide.
“The cloud of dicamba that now covers the High Plains each summer has crippled what was an award-winning and rapidly growing industry,” according to our story on the lawsuit. “The vineyards have seen their production fall dramatically, and what grapes do grow are rejected for poor quality.”
The suit was filed in Jefferson County in southeastern Texas on June 4. According to our story, it seeks $114 million in damages plus $228 million in punitive damages from both Bayer-Monsanto and BASF because, the suit says, the companies were aware ahead of time of the herbicide’s possible damage. Some 57 wine grape growers representing 3,000 acres of vines are part of the suit, including Meadow-based Bingham Family Vineyards, which said it saw its grape production decrease from 800 tons to less than 100 tons last year.
“Contracts have been canceled,” the suit reads, “winemakers have had to seek grapes elsewhere, and a stigma has attached to the region. The overall value of these vineyards has been significantly impaired both now and in the future.”
The herbicide, according to the lawsuit, can drift to vineyards in several ways, but the most harmful way is when it evaporates and moves into the air as a gas. It can then travel miles and be influenced by prevailing winds and temperature inversions. If a vineyard is damaged by the dicamba, it can take years to recover, if it recovers at all, the suit says.
For its part, Bayer responded by saying, “We have great sympathy for any grower who suffers a crop loss, but there are many possible reasons why crop losses might occur, including extreme weather conditions that can have particularly devastating effects on perennial crops like vineyards.”
Obviously, the best outcome would be for these two cash crops to coexist peacefully in an agricultural world where herbicides are an important part of the financial equation. How and if this lawsuit is resolved will have much to say about that.
It is important to point out this is only the first step in what likely will be a long and complicated process. While all the facts are not yet known, it is our hope that South Plains grape growers get their day in court and are heard on this matter as quickly as possible and that if the tender, loving care they put into their crop year after year was adversely impacted by this herbicide, they are compensated accordingly.
The Link LonkJune 19, 2021 at 02:00AM
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Our view: Region's grape growers deserve to be heard in lawsuit - LubbockOnline.com
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