Troubled Eden
Friday, November 15, 2002
By DOUG ERNST

Napa Valley Register Executive Editor
Several of Napa Valley's most interesting movers and shakers are dissected in James Conaway's "The Far Side of Eden," the second installment in a trilogy about the local tug-of-war between farmers and environmentalists, with politicians used as the rope.
But only a handful of the book's stars admit they have read the account of an "outsider" who spent only seven months here researching the issues and interviewing key people.
It's the kind of book only an outsider could write, because its author set out to report political life in the Napa Valley as an entomologist might describe the lives of bugs.
Conaway depicts vanity vintners as the root of what's wrong with agriculture in the valley today.
He portrays local politicians as slow to react to such raping of the landscape.
And finally, he presents overzealous environmentalists as being their own worst enemies.
Negative reaction
"I'm suing the author for libel," said Delia Viader, who is described by Conaway as allowing dirt from her hillside vineyard operation to pollute Bell Canyon Reservoir, St. Helena's primary source of drinking water.
"I will not admit that the vineyard slid down -- the vineyard never slid down, it's still here," Viader said. "He's trying to create controversy, and I'm tired of being used like that. It's enough, total B.S. going around. This time, I'm not going to just sit and watch it," Viader told The Register before referring the newspaper to her lawyer in San Francisco for further comment.
Others who are blamed in the book for the sad state of agricultural affairs -- vineyard developer David Abreau, vintners Garen and Shari Staglin, vineyard manager Mark Van Gorder -- declined to comment on the book or said they haven't read it.
"I've heard the book is somewhat out of date, much ado about nothing," said Herb Schmidt, government relations guru for Robert Mondavi Winery. "I really haven't heard a lot of comment about it, not even in the bars," he said.
Even Jim Laube, senior editor of the Wine Spectator, famous throughout the wine industry for his reviews of wines and wineries, declined to comment on the book.
Positive reaction
Others, however, needed no prodding to talk about the book and all it portends for the future of the valley.
"He really gets the passion, the flavor of the valley," said Madrone-Smith Winery owner Stu Smith, a key character in the book who is noted for breaking ranks with the Farm Bureau to form the farmers' rights-oriented Farmers of the Napa Valley.
"We should be pleased that he has done a book on the Napa Valley again, on the issues which have torn the valley apart and are continuing to tear it apart," Smith said.
Smith said Conaway may have oversimplified a complex situation, however.
"He has taken a difficult subject and had to make people a little more one-dimensional -- a little more black and white -- than they are.
"He makes me into this property rights freak, against all regulation, but he has not gone very deeply into the issues. The wine industry is one of the most highly regulated industries, and the real argument is how much more can the county impose on our industry and not kill the industry. If you burden one county will all these regulations without burdening all of the other counties, it will hurt our county economically."
Conaway brushed off the criticism, saying Smith's comments typify his character.
"You can't have it both ways -- there's a great deal about Stu's character in the book that has nothing to do with the issues. He's a complicated person who likes talking about issues, but that's a character trait."
County Supervisor Mike Rippey agreed Conaway may have oversimplified characters in order to bring them into sharper focus.
"For literary reasons, he focused on colorful characters," said Rippey. "If it was a dry writing of zoning and planning, nobody would read it, so that's necessary to make it interesting, but a lot of people he featured have more aspects to their personalities and lives.
"The book was more of a snapshot story of what's happening. There weren't a lot of suggestions or recommendations of what should be done," Rippey noted.
Conaway agreed with that description of his book, but added that some characters did not merit more than a snapshot.
"Not all of the characters are equal as far as their import or their personal lives," the author said. "Some just aren't very interesting -- they spend time and money to make themselves noticed, but I didn't find them, underneath all their possessions, to be interesting, nor did I find them to be honest."
Jeff Redding, the county's planning director during the book's timeframe, said Conaway delivered a valuable message to local leaders.
"Environmental protection depends on a partnership with area wide agriculturists," said Redding.
"The benefits we have achieved have happened when environmentalists and agriculturists work together. When the two divert, that's when we have difficulty.
"I hope the book brings the two back together."
'Extremism' blamed
Former Napa County supervisor Kathryn Winter is not optimistic that the two extremes identified in the book -- overzealous environmentalists and corporate wine interests -- will ever get back together.
"Conaway did a good job of showing the damage inflicted on the 30-year alliance of the agricultural and environmental communities," said Winter.
"By showing inept and shortsighted environmental extremism, he showed this blind adherence to ideology over strategy, and because of that, a small group of environmental extremists sowed the seeds of the environmental degradation they were worried about."
Conaway also exposed extremism on the other end of the spectrum, she said.
"He showed the obsessive greed and environmental irresponsibility of some of the vineyard developers and corporate interests."
But Conaway failed, she said, to expose the emerging alliance between "the corporate wine industry and the down valley business community.
"By identifying themselves with the runaway growth goals of American Canyon and the growth-at-any-cost interest in business in the city of Napa, the wine industry also sowed the seeds of its own potential destruction," Winter said.
"Conaway didn't understand there was a reason for the separation between the Upvalley and down valley -- that the alliance with Downvalley growth demonstrates the corporate mentality that has started to take over the industry Upvalley.
"When you have a lot of corporate ownership, if wine isn't a viable product then housing might be," Winter said.
Conaway responded by saying he understood more than he could fit into the book.
"There wasn't room in this book to report everything," he noted.
Longtime Napa County Supervisor Mel Varrelman is also pessimistic, but he tends to blame the environmentalists exclusively.
"Our enemy is not the industry, it is the environmental community. As we try to set up environmental regulation, we haven't been able to find reasonableness. Some have pushed too hard and become environmental bullies, but the bulk of the industry wants to reach an accord," said Varrelman.
Wine industry blamed
Napa Valley's pre-eminent environmental activist Chris Malan, who emerged as Conaway's protagonist, doubts that an accord will be soon reached.
"When they stop dynamiting the hillsides and clearcutting the forests, then maybe we can talk in the middle," said Malan. "But as long as extreme damage is going on the environmentalists won't stop what they are doing."
"The environmental community is outraged by the damage being done by the wine industry -- they are still diverting creeks, nothing has changed."
"The book will have staying power because everything that occurs on the landscape is under the current land use regulations. Unless the Board of Supervisors takes a strong leadership role conserving and preserving natural resources, the problems will persist, the resources will be depleted and there will be severe environmental concerns."
Boardmember Bill Dodd, who benefited politically from Malan's entry in the supervisor's race in 2000 because she siphoned votes from incumbent Winter, says the book's impact will be muted by the voting public's interest in other issues.
"There's a whole other part of the community, not necessarily part of the environmental community or the wine community, and that is our community at large," Dodd said.
"The people and parents who go to work, who administer health and human services, the police, the firefighters -- those are the people who elect leaders," he said.
"Perhaps people from the wine industry can provide money, but in the end it's the rest of the people in Napa who elect leaders.
"The book says I was elected by the wine industry, but I did not have the Farm Bureau or the Grapegrowers Association, and Iess than 15 percent of my contributions came from the industry.
"Agriculture and open-space preservation are important to everybody, but people are saying we have a lot of other issues."
Conaway conceded the point but said Dodd's argument shows "why agriculture is imperiled.
"Dodd is right -- people may feel it's silly, but if agriculture is going to survive, it has to be perceived as necessary or desirable by the majority of the people who live around it."
That's why people who live in the Napa Valley should read the book, he said.
Conaway added that he is planning a third book in the trilogy. He hinted that some of what was missing in "Far Side of Eden" might be found in the next installment.
"Some of my critics may be satisfied in the future. Some of the research I did, I'm going to use. There are some people who I wanted to get into, and some issues around the Napa River and elements of the way the Valley works physically. The flood control stuff was quite interesting, but there wasn't room for that in this book."around the Napa River and elements of the way the Valley works physically. The flood control stuff was quite interesting, but there wasn't room for that in this book."