(CommonDreams) - California Governor Jerry Brown spent this year’s Earth Day at the elite Iron Horse Winery in the Sebastopol countryside. It was a great photo opportunity and promotion for the winery. Iron Horse is known for donations to President Bill Clinton and other politicians, with whom it has cozy relationships, and from whom it receives favors, such as these visits. I operate a small berry and apple farm nearby and teach sustainable agriculture, mainly to college students.

“Hope Amid Drought” headlined the April 20 pro-wine industry daily Press Democrat’s (PD) report on this winery event of some 200 people. “Brown says innovation, efficiency will get state through water shortage,” the article notes. Iron Horse Vineyards CEO Joy Sterling “said the 300-acre winery…epitomized the environmental stewardship honored on Earth Day.” She spoke about their “love of the land.”

But wait. What about water usage, the theme of Gov. Brown’s talk? The previous day the PD published the commentary “Why We Don’t Dry Farm Grapes.” Its author? Iron Horse’s Laurence Sterling.

It’s hypocritical for Gov. Brown to mandate that the rest of us reduce water use by 25%, except for his friends in Big Ag and Big Wine. It’s called “green washing.” Or as we used to say, bluntly, on our Iowa family farms when we went out to clean the cute piglets, “hogwash.”

Five days later the PD published a letter that nailed both Gov. Brown and Mr. Sterling for this contradiction. Under the headline “Time for Sustainable Ag,” it was written by Sebastopol neighbor Donna Diehl. She reports, “Four of our neighbors had to drill new wells since the first of the year.” Nearby wells can go dry when Big Wine drills as deep as 1000 feet into the ground. Excessive pumping from shallow wells can also lead to neighbor’s wells pumping air, reports a Lake County wine maker.

“Let’s not wait until our groundwater is depleted to address the issue of the impact of viticulture on its depletion,” Ms. Diehl concludes.

“Mainly we are not judged by our farming method or our water usage. We are judged on how our wines taste,” alleges Mr. Sterling. He operates not on the basis of ethics but only economics--what is most profitable--regardless of environmental damage. This contrasts with Ms. Sterling’s claim about “environmental stewardship.”

Actually, this food farmer does judge Iron Horse, Gov. Brown, Big Ag, and Big Wine for extensive water usage by a few, at the expense of the rest of us and the environment. Most Californians cannot afford expensive $300 wine bottles by wine barons such as “bad apple” Paul Hobbs, whereas all humans, mammals, and most life forms on Earth depend on water for survival.

“The fierce drought gripping the West — and the imminent prospect of rationing and steep water price increases in California — is sharpening the deep economic divide in this state,” reports the April 27 New York Times article “Drought Widens Economic Divide for Californians.’” It illustrates “parallel worlds in which wealthy communities guzzle water as poorer neighbors conserve by necessity.” That article focuses on Southern California. Sound familiar?

Big Wine is not a good neighbor willing to share common resources, like water, land, and air. Instead, they hoard them and get away with it, partly because of substantial donations to politicians.

Ethical alternatives to Iron Horse and other water guzzlers exist. For example, Emeritus Vineyards is near Iron Horse and dry farms, in the same soil, according to the PD’s April 26 “Debate Over Dry Farming” article.

Most of Sonoma County’s wine production is done by large corporations owned by investors who live outside the region. That wine is sold mainly outside the region, including to the expanding market in China. The water, wine, and profits tend to leave our local region.