From vineyard IPM to re-thinking

viticultural system

study and management

Johann Baumgärtner

Centre for the Analysis of Agro-ecological Systems (CASAS), Kensington, CA, USA Senior Advisor to the Millennium Institute (MI), Washington, DC, USA, and the BioEconomy Foundation, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION

PURPOSE

To review

important issues in viticultural system study and management with scientific bases and illustrative examples

To evaluate if

a) the current methodology is able to meet the challenges or

b) a fundamental re-thinking of study and management should be undertaken

CHALLENGES

Gliessman (1998, 2007): agriculture is

undercutting its own foundations

Power (2010): agriculture is evaluated through

production, services and disservices

EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP):

sustainability is at the core of solutions

Rivera-Ferre et al. (2013): between human

development and human rights narratives

IAASTD: agriculture is at the crossroads

Issue 1 IPM: the promise

Definition

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a pest management system that, in the context of the associated environment and the population dynamics of the pest species, utilizes all suitable techniques and methods in as compatible manner as possible and maintains the pest populations at levels below those causing economic injury (Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Panel of Experts on Integrated Pest Control (1967).

Introduction of

systems analysis, modelling and computer science technology (Huffaker and Croft, 1976).

Managed

ecosystem

Recommendation

algorithm Grower

Weather Economic

environment

Pest management system

Actions Monitoring data

Recommendations

Flint and van den Bosch, 1981

Issue 2 Uncertainties with limits and opportunities

(Shea et al., 2002)

Uncertainties about density estimates

Visual estimates with high CV’s

Pheromone traps and beating trays

Uncertainties about underlying

system behaviour

Non-linear properties and variability

of parameter estimates

single species models

pests and crop interactions

(pest A > pest B)

biological pest control

Uncertainties about the environment

Relevant organisms are poikilotherms, the representation of body temperatures is associated with random and systematic errors

Carbohydrate

pool Nitrogen pool

Reserves

Vegetative plant units

Reproductive plant units

Photosynthesis Nitrogen uptake

Yield Pests

A B

Survival of Potato tuber moth eggs after 24 hours, S1 (1) is the survival that produces a damage equal to the economic

threshold (Roux and Baumgärtner, 1998)

Problem

Uncertainties translate into risks

Solution

adaptive management (AM)

Systematic process for continually improving management policies and practices by

learning from the outcomes of previous policies and practices (Comiskey et al., 2000).

Appropriate for complex problems high in uncertainty (McFadden et al., 2010).

Paradigm for management under uncertainty and continuous improvement (Holling, 1978).

Issue 3 Multidimensional aspects

Hierarchy theory

levels = units of analysis that are located at different positions on a scale.

Scale theory

scale = the spatial, temporal, quantitative, or

analytical dimensions used to measure and

study any phenomenon.

Scale-dependent patterns = change in either

the resolution (grain) or the range (extent)

of measurements

e.g. Taylor’s (1991) power law that scales

the variance with the mean density

VINEYARD

Policy makers

Extensionists

Growers

Others (e.g. administrators, special interest groups)

Surroundings

Farm

Region or country

Region or

continent

SPACE INSTITUTIONS

MANAGEMENT OBJECTS

TIME

Long term dynamics

Multiannual dynamics

Growing season Single species populations

Multiple pest community within cropping system

Multiple pest community

Multidimensional aspects

Hierarchy theory

levels = units of analysis that are located at different positions on a scale.

Scale theory

scale = the spatial, temporal, quantitative, or

analytical dimensions used to measure and

study any phenomenon.

Scale-dependent patterns = change in either

the resolution (grain) or the range (extent)

of measurements

e.g. Taylor’s (1991) power law that scales

the variance with the mean density

VINEYARD

Policy makers

Extensionists

Growers

Others (e.g. administrators, special interest groups)

Surroundings

Farm

Region or country

Region or

continent

SPACE INSTITUTIONS

MANAGEMENT OBJECTS

TIME

Long term dynamics

Multiannual dynamics

Growing season Single species populations

Multiple pest community within cropping system

Multiple pest community

Issue 4 Ecosystem service provision

Givord (2000) states that if we are to take full advantage of the potential of the rural world and recognize the socio-economic but also historical and cultural

importance of agriculture in rural Europe, the multifunctional nature of European agriculture must be maintained

Ecosystem service provision

Valuation methods differ for private and public services: the marginal value of private goods can generally be derived from market prices, whereas marginal values of public goods have to be established using non-market valuation techniques (Hein et al. 2006).

Viticultural ecosystem

Cultural service

Regulation service

Production service

Disservice

Direct use

values

Indirect use

values

Option values

Non-use value

Carbon sequestration

Erosion control

Pest control

Climate regulation

Biodiversity and nature

conservation

Heritage, study site, attractive landscape provision

Pest control

Grapes Leaves Organic residues

Loss of habitat for biodiversity

Nutrient run-off

Sedimentation

Pesticide poisoning

Ecosystem good and service provision, the Willamette Partnership, Oregon, USA, introduces ecosystem service markets driven by regulatory requirements but implemented with market dynamics and economic incentives

Issue 5 Agroecological and ecosocial system sustainability

Ecosystem

Ecosocial sustainability refers to a complex adaptive system that includes humans

Ecosocial sustainability has ecological, economic

and social dimensions in that ecological, economic and social capitals and their costs can be defined

Agroecological sustainability refers to an ecosystem that maintains the resource base upon which it depends, relies on a minimum of artificial inputs from outside,

manages pest and diseases through internal regulating mechanisms, and is able to recover from the

disturbances caused by cultivation and harvest

External actors Internal actors

The Sustainable Winegrowing Program of California’s Napa Valley wine industry relies on principles of environmentally soundness, economically feasibility and socially equitability

Complexity theory and sustainability sciences

Mitchell (2011) Kates (2011)

Issue 6 Integration of viticultural systems into sustainable rural development

ecological

dimension

economic

dimension

social

dimension

Navigation is the positioning and directing of the systems in a multidimensional space. A navigator of a

social-ecological system focus on changes during a voyage with unknown destination

Sala et al. (2013) integrate viticulture into the National Sustainable Development Strategy of Romania. Diversity and variability and high-tech culture and wine making technologies should pave the way to global markets.

Review of issues

1 The promise of IPM

2 Uncertainties with limits and opportunities

3 Multidimensional aspects

4 Ecosystem service provision

5 Agroecological and ecosocial

system sustainability

6 Integration of viticultural systems into sustainable rural development

Historical progress in viticultural system study and management ?

Representation of different perpectives (contexts) for study and management of viticultural systems

(Waltner-Toews et al., 2003)

Post-normal science characterized by “radical uncertainty” and “plurality of legitimate

perspectives” (Rivera- Ferre et al., 2013)

Re-thinking viticultural systems study and management

Likely,

Future work within the different issues

may produce incremental gains in knowledge and management skills.

Possibly,

Re-thinking of study and management

holds to promise to produce the leaps

(Rivera-Ferre et al., 2013)

Sufficient to address the challenges ?

Philosophy = thinking about thinking

(Honderich, 2005)

Re-thinking viticultural systems study and management: ethics

Moral value systems

Consequential (utilitarian) and deontological (duty-based) based moral systems (Huppenbauer & Bleisch, 2011).

A utilitarian system valuates decisions and actions on the basis of their consequences, and the decisions and actions should aim at the greatest possible utility for the greatest possible number of humans

In a duty-based or deontological system, ethics is based on moral principles concerning decisions, actions or goods with intrinsic value.

Commodification of good and services

if everything is up for sale:

in a society with widening gaps between rich and poor, the sting of inequality sharpens,

many good things in life become corrupted or degraded.

Sandel, M.J. 2013. What money can’t buy. The moral limits of markets. Penguin books, London, UK, 244 p.

There is little reason for disregarding the deontological value system in study and

management of ecosocial systems

Re-thinking viticultural systems study and management: overcoming epistemological limitations

Generally,

Denial of reality

is responsible for the ‘nose diving’ of philosophy and part of physics (Deutsch and Ekert, 2012)

Spefically,

Logical positivism

experimental approaches >> abstract laws and fundamental principles for supporting scientific claims

narrow methodology applied in agricultural research

Instrumentalism

Some technologies have an instrumental value just to the extent that it lends itself, fortuitously or by design, effectively to the achievement of some desired or valued purpose

Promotion of pesticides rather than investments into studies on pesticide effects in population systems dynamics

Promotion of genetically modified organisms rather than investments into the revision of genetics (genome integrity, epigenetics)

Promotion of heavy machinery rather than investments into studies enhancing energetic sustainability

Philosophical relativism

Philosophical relativism emphasizes cultural differences in knowledge acquisition

Re-establishment of an interrelationship with reality might Create a common

denominator Facilitate stakeholder

collaboration

Thank you !

So that I may perceive whatever holds The world together in ist inmost folds

(Faust in Göthe, 1806)