A single moment can change everything. A perfect tune playing across some piano keys. A formula finally balancing after years of pondering. A misstep with a stranger on the street that ends in a love story. For Dr. Tom Lowery, a chance encounter led to one of the greatest discoveries of his career, one that wine lovers across the country are very grateful happened.
Trouble fermenting in B.C.’s wine industry
It was 1992. While everyone else was lining up to see Wayne’s World in the theater or talking about the summer Olympics in Barcelona, a newly minted Dr. Tom Lowery emerged from defending his doctorate in entomology at the University of British Columbia. He was tired, pleased, proud, and, most importantly, ready for the next chapter of his career.
He wasn’t the only one going through a change. The wine industry was on the cusp of a major shift, with the domestic market in Canada about to see an upsurge in competition. Long insulated from exports of other countries, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was in the works, finally solidifying in early 1994. The trade agreement opened the proverbial cellar door for wine imports from the United States, and the cheaper wines from California began flowing across the border. Local wineries found it difficult to stay afloat against the new American companies vying for attention.
Tom didn’t know about that, though. He was focused on bugs and pests. Afterall, he’d just spent decades dedicated to them. What was wine to an insect expert?
But a chance encounter changed the course of his research. "It was a right-place, right-time situation," Tom explains of the life-changing moment his career dipped into the wine industry. "I happened to meet a member of the British Columbia Wine Grape Council Research and Development Committee." The meeting earned him a grant to conduct research on egg parasitoids of the Virginia creeper leafhopper, and ultimately kick-started his career at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Summerland Research and Development Centre (SuRDC).
Soon afterwards, Tom’s work with pests and wine grapes would become invaluable.
Wrath of the grapes
What are grapevine leafroll diseases?
Grapevine leafroll diseases (GLD) are viruses that can infect grapevines. Spread by mealybugs and scale insects, GLD can reduce grape yields, alter fruit ripening and the fruit’s chemistry.
As a result of the wine industry’s upheaval, many acres of common hybrid grapes were uprooted in favour of the more premium Vitis vinifera (Vv) varieties. Known for producing high quality wines like chardonnay and merlot, these “noble grapes” were responsible for a boom in the region’s wineries, restaurants, and tourism industries. However, planting these new varieties meant some growing pains in the first few years. Along with some uninvited guests.
For starters, the Vv grapes were more sensitive to diseases and pest issues than the cold-hardy hybrid varieties grown previously. Suddenly, pests like the Virginia creeper leafhopper, mealybug and scale insects (known to transmit grapevine leafroll viruses) became a big headache for growers. Fending off the pests with the usual insecticides only seemed to make it worse, too.
As a leading expert in irksome insects, Tom was called in to figure out what was suddenly causing such extreme levels of damage to some of British Columbia’s vineyards.
After the inspection of damage and the collection of specimens from numerous vineyard sites, Tom had some answers by the end of his first summer. With help from colleagues at AAFC’s Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, he was able to identify which pest was really pestering grape growers: the western grape leafhopper, a species native to coastal California. Unlike Tom’s old friend, the Virginia creeper leafhopper, the western grape leafhopper was resistant to insecticide treatments used at the time to control other leafhopper populations. In fact, western grape leafhopper numbers exploded following treatments because the pesticide inadvertently killed beneficial insects that helped control the leafhoppers.
"It was a huge discovery," Tom notes of the findings. "Controlling invasive insect populations can be really difficult, but at least we now had a starting point."
Except they quickly learned that the damage reached further.
As feared, the widespread use of new insecticide treatments also caused a significant uptick in mealybug and scale insect populations. As a result, a grapevine leafroll disease swept through vineyards in many parts of the south Okanagan.
The fight to save the grapes was just beginning for Tom. Luckily, he wouldn’t be going through it alone.
Keep calm and carry on the research
What is the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal?
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal was created in 2012 to mark the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the Throne as Queen of Canada and honour her service to our country. The medal also served to honour the significant contributions and achievements of Canadians in a variety of fields. A total of 60,000 medals were awarded during the anniversary year.
Following Tom’s discovery of the new leafhopper and underlying cause of the disease outbreak, he was granted a new research program to find a solution for the grapevines’ woes. It took two consecutive five-year studies, led jointly by Tom and Dr. José Ramón Úrbez-Torres, hours spent sharing best management practices with growers, and replanting acres of vines to finally get the disease and the insect populations under control. Beyond the vines, Tom’s learnings culminated in many articles, presentations, and several iterations of the insect and mite sections of the production guide for local grape growers, which supported more sustainable, organic pest management methods.
"Although our work looks like it's focused on industry needs, in a broader sense it's meant to benefit society and the public good," Tom says, "We’re working for Canadians in the broadest term." His contributions to the management of insect pests and the diseases they transmit would later be recognized with the esteemed Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013, which he credits to the substantial support he received from industry over the years. In his own words: "You don’t get this award without the involvement of a lot of people."
After dedicating more than 30 years to serving the grape industry and Canadian public, Tom has made the decision to hang up his lab coat and work boots. Those who have long relied on his work need not fret, though, as he continues the research as an Honorary Research Associate at SuRDC, tying up loose ends on some unfinished business, including an updated edition of the insect and mite section of the production guide, and by providing guidance for continuing studies at the Research Centre.
There are no sour grapes on his part, either—Tom’s so grateful for his career, lending thanks to the many collaborating growers, technicians, postdoctoral fellows, students and colleagues whose hard work and dedication contributed to the success of his research.
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