Social Sustainability: Identifying and Managing Wine Industry Impacts on People 

Human and labor rights, for the most part, remain a significant void in most regional wine sustainability standards. While environmental standards, required in order to be certified, are detailed and broad in their coverage, human social issues are typically voluntary and not included among mandatory standards. 

I have long been disturbed and concerned that organic and biodynamic certifications, as well as the natural wine movement, have no requirements for social sustainability. While organic and biodynamic practices require elimination of all chemical use and conservation of biodiversity, they do not as a rule cover social justice or equity. An organic label is one way to judge a wine’s environmental responsibility, but the life cycle impact of a bottle of wine goes beyond that, to include human rights factors as well. Needless to say I was very happy to see the emergence of Regenerative Organic Certified®, a relatively new certification that uses Certified Organic standards as a baseline, and adds stringent requirements for soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness (i.e. farmworker fairness) into one certification for food, clothing and personal care products. A few wineries around the world have achieved this certification.

Research by the Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR) demonstrates that issues of human and labor rights also remain a significant gap in the coverage of most regional sustainability standards for wine grape growers and wineries. Environmental considerations such as water and energy management, soil health and minimization of chemical use are covered by these standards in great detail. However, in most cases, ‘human issues’ are typically limited to factors such as in-job training, and provision of appropriate use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for field workers.However, according to SWR, it is “a matter of some urgency that the wine sector gets to grips with more challenging labour rights issues such as modern slavery, bonded and child labour, and the living income. Increasing regulatory pressure, for example from the EU’s supply chain due diligence legislation will mean that addressing these issues will become a matter of market access for many wine producers.” 

The common issues of social responsibility are working conditions, gender equality, and racial diversity throughout the wine supply chain, along with fair compensation.

“Social sustainability considers diverse stakeholders, including employees, consumers, and community members, and emphasizes intergenerational equality, quality of life, and protection from harm,” says Dr. Monique Bell, wine business researcher, author of Terroir Noir: Study of Black Wine Entrepreneurs, and marketing professor at California State University, Fresno. 

Just as diversity in agricultural fields does not happen on its own, but needs to be planted, cultivated, and nurtured by the stewards of the land, so too is it the responsibility of growers, winemakers, and retailers to actively cultivate and nurture people, diversity, and equity throughout the industry from the field to the shelf to the table. In general, social sustainability is about inclusive, just, and resilient societies, working alongside economic and environmental sustainability. 

In the past, my work for consumer products companies has called for striking the balance between economic sustainability and environmental sustainability and assuaging worries about the financial costs of being environmentally compliant and responsible. But a growing awareness of the challenges of fragility, persistent inequality, and racial discrimination, means social sustainability has been recognized as central to growth, poverty reduction, and fostering more inclusive, resilient, and peaceful communities. 

Increasingly employees and customers look to business leaders to address social and environmental issues.When I went to work at Starbucks in the early 2000s, as sustainability hit the global stage as a critical element of business leadership, social equity was always inherent to being sustainable, then called corporate social responsibility (CSR). Over time the social equity element has been sidelined, and increasingly sustainability has become synonymous solely with environmental stewardship.

When we speak of sustainability, we typically refer to avoiding depletion of natural resources and protecting the natural environment, but it is more. It extends to preserving community and culture, protecting social and economic resources for people. In fact, real sustainability is about caring for the health and resilience of nature and environment, the health and resilience of employees and community, all of which attract today’s consumers and contribute to the success and longevity of businesses.

Social sustainability extends to issues that improve the quality of our lives, reducing inequality; fighting poverty; helping people make better choices about their physical and mental health, education, and work; supporting childcare, senior care, health care, and workplace diversity. 

According to Fresno State Professor Bell, consumers consider social sustainability, along with environmental and other issues, when evaluating brands and companies.

She adds, “The wine industry, like many others, sees the potential of Millennials and older members of Generation Z to offset dwindling consumption by other segments. Not only are these younger consumers more racially diverse than previous generations, they hold higher ethical expectations, which shape their consumption decisions.”

Ten years ago, you might not have had these expectations, but disease, social injustice, protests, economic collapse, climate crises and war are weighing heavily on all our minds now. 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we heard a lot about essential workers. Workers and farmers across the world helped ensure that we still had access to the foods we eat every day. 

Yet despite this crucial service to us all, the global food system remains tilted against their rights, specifically for women and migrant workers. Some employers exploit the fact that migrant workers face fewer protections. They can be entitled to fewer rights under local laws; they may be undocumented and in fear of deportation; or they may be isolated or even more dependent on their wages and therefore less likely to speak out.Wine consumers need to view worker rights issues urgently.

The History of Labor Practices in the Wine Industry

Numerous reports over the last two decades have described the awful labor practices in South African vineyards. In 2011 a Human Rights Watch study revealed appalling conditions for  farmworkers who produce the grapes for South African wines, including eviction of workers and their families from vineyard-owned housing. Many South African wine farms (as they are called there) responded by signing up to WIETA, an ethical code of conduct to promote ethics in the agricultural sector. WIETA audits compliance with the standards, and issues a WIETA Fair Labor Certification Seal for wine packages that signifies that all producers, growers, cellars, and bottling facilities that contributed to the production of the wine adhere to the association’s ethical standards, policies, and procedures. Good progress, but a 2016 documentary, Bitter Grapes: Slavery in Vineyards, painted a sad, and not much improved, picture.

A recent study (2023) by Finnwatch, a nongovernmental organization that investigates the global impacts of Finland’s business enterprises, described their visits to wine farms which sell wine grapes used in eleven wines exported to Finland and found that on all the farms visited, although permanent employees are allowed to live on the farms for free, the report uncovered some evictions and displacement and found accommodations in very poor condition.  In some instances, it was thought living conditions might be harmful to health. Some workers also complained that they were treated aggressively and not allowed to unionize.

And lest you think this is a problem only in vineyards in the global south, the exploitation of labor has also been highlighted in the European Union. An investigation conducted by Oxfam, a British-based confederation of organizations around the world devoted to alleviating global poverty, uncovered some appalling labor abuses in the Italian wine industry. The report by Oxfam (https://movendi.ngo/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/the_workers_behind_swedens_italian_wine.pdf) revealed grave human rights violations involving migrant labor in Italy, one of the largest wine exporters in the world. Regarding social inequity over the last several years the exploitations of migrant labor has drawn widespread attention from the Italian public, the media, and policymakers.

Labor systems involving the recruitment, intermediation, and exploitation of irregular, underpaid farm labor extends all across the country. Labor contractors are responsible for human trafficking, forced labor, health and safety violations, economic exploitation, housing abuses, lack of sick pay, daily dismissals, and other human rights abuses.

A lot of these workers in Italy were not confident raising a concern or grievance at the workplace, for fear of losing their jobs or reprisals from the company. No remedy exists. Trade unions play the only effective role of offering a means for migrant workers to raise concerns about their treatment in the sector. However, a significant number of workers in Italy do not feel they can safely join a union or do not even know what a union is.

This fear of retaliation is real. In 2022 migrant workers from Oaxaca, Mexico, spoke up against what they believed to be unfair and unsafe working conditions they had experienced for the three years they worked at a Sonoma vineyard during harvest. They said they were asked to work on extremely hot days without adequate protections against the heat, hours of their pay were docked for unjustified reasons, and they suffered verbal abuse from the foreman who supervised them. The next year the labor contractor did not hire them back.

Despite the dismal picture painted of some farmworkers in Italy, South Africa, and the US, there are numerous wineries doing the right thing. For example, Washington’s Chateau Ste. Michelle employs over 100 unionized agricultural and cellar workers, providing health insurance and paid time off, as well as opportunities for professional growth.

South Africa’s third-generation winery Simonsig provides fifty staff houses, all supplied with clean running water, in-house sewerage, as well as subsidized electricity and trash removal. Since 1979, they have had an on-site creche (day care) and after-school center. All learners are provided with a hot meal as well as homework assistance, and a computer room with internet access that is available to the children for projects.

Elsewhere throughout the wine value chain – restaurants, wine bars, and retailers, where we purchase and enjoy our wine – employees and customers should be treated with respect and dignity. For several years now, many parts of the wine industry – from winegrowing to distribution, hospitality, and wine education – have been faced with tackling a serious lack of racial and gender diversity, the subjects of past blog posts on this site.