California’s grape growers have agreed to tax themselves through
2011 to fight the glassy-winged sharpshooter, a pest capable of
wiping out vineyards.
California’s grape growers have agreed to tax themselves through 2011 to fight the glassy-winged sharpshooter, a pest capable of wiping out vineyards.
The referendum to extend a tax first assessed in 2002 was approved by 89.7 percent of the growers who voted in the election. Fifty-five percent of the state’s 7,425 growers cast ballots in the mail-in vote.
It will cost grape growers $1 to $3 for every $1,000 of crop value.
The sharpshooter, discovered in California in 1999, preys on a variety of crops but carries, Pierce’s Disease, that is particularly lethal to grapevines. The disease clogs the plumbing in a vine, making it impossible for water and nutrients to get to the fruit. Grape growers are the only farmers who pay a tax to fight the pest.
“Growers have worked tirelessly with us for years now to make the Pierce’s disease control program a success,” said A.G. Kawamura, California’s secretary of agriculture. “This is tremendous vote of confidence, but we are mindful that Pierce’s disease and the sharpshooter are a very real threat.”
In its first four years, the assessment has raised $17.8 million since 2002 and funded about 100 studies of the Sharpshooter’s habits. The California Department of Food and Agriculture has spent about $145 million in state and federal funding to control the bug over the last five years.
State growers did not vote on the first tax increase, but supported a bill in 2000 that imposed the assessment for five years. Had the referendum failed, the tax would have expired after 2006.
