CAN LOCALS IN NAPA STAVE OFF A TROUBLESOME MEGA-VINEYARD?

In California wine country, environmentalists and vintners have kept an uneasy peace. Corporate overreach and damage to the environment are threatening to fracture it.

Sophie Yeo for Pacific Standard, May 24, 2018

(Photo: Richard Price/Unsplash)

(Photo: Richard Price/Unsplash)

"Residents of Napa County are losing patience with the wine industry. At the heart of their frustration is Walt Ranch, a proposed 200-acre mega-vineyard that, if it goes ahead, will remove thousands of trees from the steep slopes of the valley. But this latest dispute is also part of a more deeply rooted anger over the corporate powers that have come to dominate this Californian Eden...

""It's an environmental project, but it's turned into a political one because there seems to be a lack of democratic process here in Napa County. If the rich and powerful control the government, then the citizens are being ignored, and that's what's happening here.""

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