ABSTRACT
The visual clarity of a glass of grape wine implies to consumers that wine is animal-free. Wine producers rarely disavow drinkers of this notion, and quite probably, the sensory pleasure of drinking wine discourages consumers from thinking too hard about the environmental implications of modern wine production. Yet like all forms of industrial cropping for food, beverage and fibre, growing grapes (Vitis vinifera) necessitates the destruction by humans of animals that feed on vines and fruit, in which the animals are configured, economically, as ‘pests’. This chapter traces V. vinifera as an invasive species in Australia from the perspective of native animal feeders. By presenting native caterpillars and birds, in particular, as agents in the wider ecologies that host vineyards, I draw attention to animals in the processes of winegrowing. My intention is also to highlight the paradoxical identity of native animal feeders in vineyards as ‘native’ to ecologists and ‘pests’ to grape growers and agricultural scientists as a case study in how anthropocentric commodity cultures have naturalised a division between human and non-human nature.
