PAUL HOBBS PICKET UPDATE...

Today I took my kids to their very first demonstration.  It just so happens it was in their hometown.  A link to the Press Democrat article is below.

L-R: Ernie Carpenter - Sunridge Students - Shepherd Bliss

Paul Hobbs' Winery is an LLC with deep pockets just poised to snap up parcels of land to convert into vineyards.  I can't help but think of the Orcs in Lord of the Rings - just ripping up everything in sight to fuel their wine machine without any concern of the consequences to land or human. 

Victims of all ages showed up to demonstrate their concerns.

Today's action against Paul Hobbs is just the tip of the iceberg.  Hobbs has shed light on a much bigger problem, not just in our county, but statewide.  And if you ask me, it is a problem that has yet to be recognized in almost every state in the union; Texas, for instance.  Oregon.  Even Virginia are experiencing huge swathes of their landscape being plowed under by grape vines.

We need to wake up.  We need to impose a moratorium on new vineyard development AT LEAST in Sonoma County to assess the damage to our environment.  We need to acknowledge the harm inflicted on us by these chemicals in use through irresponsible farming methods.

Sonoma County has been transformed from an agricultural-based society that use to benefit all, to a mono-culture that now benefits only a few.  On a daily basis we lose habitat after habitat to wine grapes.

It was a beautiful orchard that greeted us every morning.

Just today, across from our house, heavy equipment was churning dead apple trees into wood chips.  What was once a haven for birds, bees and other pollinators, it is now a barren wasteland of dust with the occasional weed sucking up whatever moisture is left in the ground.  The next step will be to install a vineyard that drains resources, provides no habitat and negatively impacts the environment.  And that's IF they farm organically.

The apple trees piled in the BG are being chipped.

Ya know, I get a lot of people thanking me for this blog and my letters and my voice at council meetings, but I don't see any of those folks at any of these events.  Instead of thanking me, PLEASE, write your Sonoma County Supervisors and tell them to take action to protect our kids.

PROTECT - OUR - KIDS.

All Sonoma County Supervisors' emails are included above in the menu page "SC Supes".  Write them.  Tell them to stop green-lighting new vineyard development without EIRs.  Tell them we MUST determine buffer zones around schools and areas where the public congregate.  Tell them we need a moratorium on new vineyard development for at least 3 years to determine damage to, not just the environment, but to our health.

This is a very wide reaching hazard.  Look at this article.

Pesticides from the Central Valley are turning up in frogs in the Sierra Nevada.  Read this:

http://www.sfgate.com/science/articl...gs-4689606.php 

How can anyone doubt that pesticides and herbicides from vineyards in our neighborhoods poison everyone nearby?

HEY, PAUL HOBBS!  HEAR THAT?

Paul Hobbs

Here's the Press Democrat article:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/gallery/gallery/20130729.729009995.html