Your Mother Doesn’t Work Here

The Northwest Grape Foundation Service and WSU are keeping Washington’s vineyards clean

By Brian C. Clark, Washington State University

The Northwest Grape Foundation Service is part of the National Clean Plant Network, a nationwide effort to supply agricultural producers with “clean,” virus-free plant material. Considerable scientific expertise and rigor is needed to thoroughly screen plant material for viruses and to propagate the clean material. The clean material is then released to certified commercial nurseries throughout the Pacific Northwest, where it is grown for sale to producers. Considering the prevalence of viruses and the expense of keeping them at bay, the National Clean Plant Network is not only a great investment, it is a necessary one.

Late in 2008, the organization Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) issued an analysis of the 2009 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, also known as the Farm Bill. The organization focuses on government waste of tax payers’ money, a laudable form of activism.

But one of the appropriations in the Farm Bill that CAGW calls pork simply isn’t. In a press release, CAGW said Washington senators Murray and Cantwell added what they call “an example of pork” to the Bill. The appropriation was for $237,000 for the “Wine Grape Foundation Block” (actually it’s a service, not a “block,” and its official name is the Northwest Grape Foundation Service or NWGFS), based at WSU’s Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser. It’s important to understand that Washington State University is the manager, not the owner, of the NWGFS.

The Northwest Grape Foundation Service is part of the National Clean Plant Network, a nationwide effort to supply agricultural producers with “clean,” virus-free plant material. Considerable scientific expertise and rigor is needed to thoroughly screen plant material for viruses and to propagate the clean material. The clean material is then released to certified commercial nurseries throughout the Pacific Northwest, where it is grown for sale to producers. Considering the prevalence of viruses and the expense of keeping them at bay, the National Clean Plant Network is not only a wise investment, it is a necessary one.

Perhaps the oddest thing about CAGW’s charge is that it is completely at odds with their own criteria for “pork,” which includes the following statement: “Serves only a local or special interest.”

I asked Markus Keller, WSU viticulturist and co-director of the NWGFS (with Gary Ballard; Keller is on the right in the photograph), about this, and he pointed out that this is completely untrue:

“It is important to realize,” Keller said, “that, as the name implies, the Northwest Grape Foundation Service serves the grape (including wine, juice, table, and ornamental) industries throughout the Pacific Northwest. It is neither just about Washington, nor just about the wine industry. Funding does not come from the federal government alone, but is a mix of federal, state, and industry sources, plus income generated from the sale of clean plant material.”

Keeping It Clean

Originally established in 1961 by Walter Clore, the father of the state’s wine industry, the Northwest Grape Foundation Service propagates and distributes certified virus-free material to wine grape growers in the Pacific Northwest. Just one of two regional services in the United States, WSU’s Northwest Grape Foundation Service grows over 125 varieties and is regularly adding more.

Planting certified grape stock is a vineyard manager’s best insurance against the introduction or spread of grape pathogens. Certification is assurance that the vine passed a rigorous testing process confirming it is free of the pathogens identified by Washington state’s administrative codes.

The certification process starts when plant material is vigorously tested for specifically identified pathogens with laboratory indexing methods. If the selection is found to be compromised with one or more listed pathogens, propagation methods are undertaken to remove the pathogens. Once laboratory and biological testing show the selection to be free of the pathogens, the selection is promoted to “registered release” status.

As for the location of varieties in the foundation block, there’s a map, but it’s locked in a vault—literally.

“The map’s something not to be given to anybody,” said Gary Ballard, manager of the foundation block vineyards. It’s just another way of insuring the health and longevity of the region’s booming wine industry.