Theme 1: perceived impacts of neighborhood groups. LAMP, loop-mediated isothermal amplification; TCAH, three-cornered alfalfa hopper.
| Sub-theme | Example quotes from interviews |
|---|---|
| Sharing knowledge and data | “I really benefit from interacting with different groups that farm differently to me…you learn a lot from hearing what other people are seeing and doing. You can improve your own practices, or even bounce ideas like what did you spray? Or what are your costs?”. “[There has been] sharing of data like spore traps, red blotch flagging counts, which blocks have red blotch, vine mealybug, biocontrol, mating disruption, red blotch was a big topic, people shared did they do LAMP, protocols, how they make it work, effectiveness”. |
| Improved social network | “We talk about similar problems, similar goals, we may not solve it in the meeting but…when we go to redevelop or something…you can call directly that person and say ‘hey, we’re doing X Y and Z, what do you think? You want to coordinate anything?’ I mean if you really want to dumb it down into one simple word it’s community. There was no community, and this [group] brings that”. “All these people I didn’t know before…now I can contact [other members] and ask ‘hey, I am seeing this, how would you treat this?’ So, it’s another contact in your phonebook”. |
| Reduced neighborhood conflict | “There [had] certainly been some conflict. I volunteered [to create the group] after having difficult conversations with neighbors. Before the group, the neighbors went directly to [the authorities] and filed a complaint…I suggested as a solution that we form a neighborhood group, for more cooperative and unneighborly communication…It has absolutely improved the relationship. We have shared openly what we’ve been doing, and they’ve shared as well”. |
| Increased adoption of practices | “We were able to show everyone in the neighborhood, here’s a block that has really high traps counts, and it is influencing blocks next to it… [that member] did a contact spray and started using pheromones. And then essentially our trap count went to zero”. |
| Reduction in disease and vectors | “[There has been] A big reduction in leafroll. I think so – significant, yeah. Huge”. “This year our counts are way down. We had a trap average in the 100s and this year we have an average of 25. That is a huge reduction, in 2020 we were getting 500 per trap”. |
| Regulatory changes | “For those of us who are organic there was a lot of work done to approve the ant bait… [another member] gave me the recipe they submitted which was exactly the same as I submitted to [certification agency] which they denied! So, then I could circle back and say: ‘hey I know you approved for them’…you spread that information so you and other people can…stand up for something you know should be approved”. “I got [other group member] excited about it and then he started talking to [supplier] and they suddenly got an exemption on one of the labels to legally target TCAH on the label” |
| Resilience to future challenges | Researcher: “If vine mealybug disappeared magically, would your group stick around to talk about other topics?” “Absolutely. There are always new viticulture challenges and so I think the group sees the benefit in the collaboration, the sharing of ideas and practices. So, best case scenario vine mealybug goes away but we know there is a new pest on our doorstep, we know water and climate and pest pressure, disease, there is always going to be a need for collaboration”. |
| Inspiration for new groups | “I started attending [NAViP] meetings in 2022, that was where I got the impetus to reach out and try make something happen on our driveway”. |