Neighboring Communities

Neighboring communities are the most important piece to the puzzle. This is because their function provides both broad and precise insights on the matter. They can see almost all sides to the equation. Since they live close to the vineyards, they can see the history of the terrain and much more of the complex relationships of causality and ends/means. We had the pleasure of interviewing three gentlemen that live in a little town called Circle Oaks where the wine business plans on cutting down hundreds of trees, and they all had very interesting answers. The first man we interviewed recently moved to the area. He said that while he only recently arrived, he found himself to be generally opposed to the deforesting. He also said that just recently he talked to his neighbor to get more information on the matter which furthered his disdain towards the deforesting operations. We learned from this guy that group think is very important for not only industrial and consumer cultures, but for neighboring communities as well. The community provides a stable backbone of group ideology. The second man that we talked to had perhaps the most interesting perspective. Like the first man, he was generally opposed to the idea, yet he had some competing normative ideologies that opposed his own activism. He believed that it didn't matter what people did as long as it was on their own property. This meant that as long as the land that was purchased by the vineyard was privately theirs, they could chop down as many trees as they wanted. The last man we talked to was much more vehement about preserving the trees and expressed much more knowledge on the subject. He was able to talk in depth about the various ecological crises that would result from making room for the vineyard. He talked about his love of wildlife and his concern for very important practical needs like water sustainability.