Are the many new wineries, breweries, and distilleries popping up across the countryside helping or hurting the cause of agricultural land preservation? Last week, the Washington Supreme Court appeared to fall on the side of those who say they hurt agriculture. This decision came as a disappointment to the many advocates who see the crowds of people visiting farms with their open pocketbooks as a net benefit to rural communities.
In many areas, particularly those near urban centers, on-farm alcohol production has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, as highlighted in this article from the Hudson Valley in New York. Advocates cite benefits in providing community gathering spaces, connections to agricultural traditions, and new economic development to rural areas and farm families as a whole.
But at the same time, others point to the traffic congestion, parking lots, and warehouses as evidence that wineries, meaderies, cideries, and all their alcohol-driven cousins are not a fit with rural quality of life. Others also point out that these value-added operations drive up land prices near areas that are just the locations sought by direct market farmers, especially historically underserved farmers who grow for urban consumers.
As outlined in this Capital Press news feature, the ordinance was struck down as insufficiently protective of agriculture even though it required that 60% of the ingredients for the beverages be grown on-site. The ordinance also allowed no more than 25% of a site to be paved and imposed guest limits of between 150-250 people based on size. The court ruled that these limitations could still result in substantial degradation of the rural environment.
Cases like this rarely offer straightforward conclusions like, “And now, there will be no more wineries in King County, Washington!” The law is, of course, more complicated than that. What the Washington Supreme Court did was hand the can of worms back to King County, telling them that they needed to first conduct an environmental review if they wished to enact this ordinance. King County could certainly choose to conduct that review and use it to prove that the impact of winery proliferation will be minimal. Often, however, the preparation of an environmental review is burdensome enough to scare off local governments from going forward.
The solutions to livable, healthy rural areas and thriving environmentally sustainable farms are not obvious. The law reflects the constant push and pull of perspectives as communities try to find a balance for themselves.