National Research Council Appoints Thrupp for Sustainable Farming Study

Fetzer Organic Expert Adds Expertise to Seek Sustainable Solutions

Dr. Ann Thrupp, who leads Fetzer Vineyards sustainability and environmental efforts, has been appointed to the National Research Council's Committee on 21st Century Systems Agriculture. Operating as part of the National Academy of Sciences, the NRC committee will produce a study that will ideally lead to increasing environmental awareness and understanding and adoption of sustainable agriculture practices worldwide.

Fetzer Vineyards is part of Brown-Forman Beverages. Dr. Thrupp was the first Managing Director of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, where she served in addition to overseeing Fetzer's organic development and sustainability activities, working closely with growers. Earlier, she worked with the Environmental Protection Agency's Agriculture Initiative and for much of the 1990s she was the Director of Sustainable Agriculture at the World Resources Institute, where she worked extensively on international agriculture and natural resource management issues, particularly in Latin America.

The NRC Committee, which includes experts from a variety of universities and leading sustainable agriculture companies and think tanks, will build on an earlier report called Alternative Agriculture, which, upon its publication in 1989, led to the adoption of then unconventional farming practices such as integrated pest management, conservation tillage and crop rotations. The study is sponsored, in part, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources (BANR) is the major program unit of the National Research Council (NRC) responsible for organizing and overseeing studies on issues of agricultural production and related matters of natural resource development, including forestry, fisheries, wildlife, and land and water use. For more information, visit the web at www8.nationalacademies.org.

Fetzer Vineyards has been the leading producer of Earth-Friendly Wines(TM) from sustainable practices for more than two decades. To learn more about Fetzer's broad array of environmental initiatives, visit Fetzer on the web at www.Fetzer.com.

Brown-Forman Corporation is a diversified producer and marketer of fine quality beverage alcohol brands, including Jack Daniel's, Southern Comfort, Finlandia Vodka, Tequila Herradura, el Jimador Tequila, Canadian Mist, Sonoma-Cutrer, Fetzer and Bolla wines, and Korbel California Champagnes. To learn more about Brown-Forman's corporate responsibility efforts visit www.brown-forman.com/responsibility.