What are The Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing? They are California's first sustainable winegrowing standards that have been peer reviewed by scientists, academics and environmentalists and being implemented on a region-wide basis. The Lodi Rules are based on the Lodi Winegrower's Workbook and are designed to lead to measurable improvements in environmental health of the surrounding ecosystem, society-at-large, and wine quality. Participating growers can get their vineyards certified as producing sustainably-grown winegrapes.

Unlike 'do no harm' programs that consist mainly of practices that should not be used, The Lodi Rules program requires growers to use a wide range of sustainable practices that result in continual improvement of all aspects of their farming operations.

The Lodi Rules Program is third party certified which means the standards have been reviewed and endorsed by an organization not connected to the Lodi Woodbridge Winegrape Commission. Vineyards in The Lodi Rules program will be certified by Protected Harvest, an environmental non-profit organization that endorses farmers' use of stringent environmental farming standards. Protected Harvest has received the highest rating by Consumers Union as an eco-label with meaningful, verifiable, and transparent standards.

The Lodi Rules Program has two components;

• Sustainable winegrowing standards,
• Pesticide Environmental Assessment System that measures the environmental impact of all the pesticides, whether organic or synthetic, used in a vineyard during the year (PEAS).

To qualify for certification a vineyard has to achieve a minimum number of sustainable farming practices points based on The Lodi Rules, and not exceed a maximum number of pesticide impact points calculated using PEAS. Certification is awarded to an individual vineyard on an annual basis. Protected Harvest ensures compliance and chain of custody with The Lodi Rules using an auditing process.