A sustainable wine industry will be built on the labor of such good farmers, even if the sharpshooter harms the current overplanted industry. Though promising it would continue to support local farmers, that chain now imports fruit from Europe and Latin America. I feel things closing in on me, a way of life dying. Death is as common on farms as in wars. Plants and livestock are vulnerable and perish.
Growth can emerge from death and decay.
But it is hard to get used to death, especially the death of woodlands and orchards mowed down to accommodate houses and industrial vineyards, the twin threats to Sonoma County's quality of life and environment. I drive up to the graveyard on a hill in the town of Bloomfield and to a cemetery outside Graton, still surrounded by apple orchards, but probably not for long. Many deaths accumulate in my soul, settling into a place where their lives will be remembered. New farmers used to come to Sonoma County every year. We would welcome them and educate them about the tasks of tending the ground and its bounty.