Saw an article in this months NSS News mag., lots of cool information on bats as pollinators (which I was ignorant about). Always loved bats. Now we can drink bat friendly tequila and help the environment! Check them out on FB or

http://www.tequilainterchangeproject.org/

I must admit to caring more about tequila than bats, but your post intrigued me and I spent some time at the TIP website. Frankly, I didn’t learn a lot. If I understand the problem, there remains a high demand for both tequila and mescal. The demand has led to earlier harvest of blue agave than desirable for the long-term stability of the population of the pollinators, the bat whose name escapes me. The TIP is doing...what? That’s what’s unclear

What they are pushing for is for the growers to allow a percent of their plants to flower, and then the bats will pollinate them and others, thus, helping the bat populations and diversifying the agave plants. And we get better tequila!

Fair enough, and they need money for...?

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Fair enough, and they need money for...?

Who knows, but I'll try "bat friendly" tequila, one of the easier ways to "be involved".....

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Fair enough, and they need money for...?

They state that in their last paragraph:

"...in order to guarantee this, it is essential to monitor the living conditions of day laborers and farmers, who are direct actors in the health of ecosystems. For that reason, it is necessary to improve wages and benefits, and to regulate the prices of agave based on criteria such as their contribution to environmental sustainability, the reduction of the carbon footprint, and the improvement of the social fabric..."

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quote:

Originally posted by sleepla8er:

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Fair enough, and they need money for...?

They state that in their last paragraph:

"...in order to guarantee this, it is essential to monitor the living conditions of day laborers and farmers, who are direct actors in the health of ecosystems. For that reason, it is necessary to improve wages and benefits, and to regulate the prices of agave based on criteria such as their contribution to environmental sustainability, the reduction of the carbon footprint, and the improvement of the social fabric..."

.

That’s quite a mouthful and it’s difficult for me to understand how you “regulate prices” based on the criteria listed above. In particular, how do you use contributions to “regulate prices.”

I have no idea about the agave used in mescal, since it can be harvested all over the remainder of Mexico. Tequila, of course, only comes from Jalisco, and I know “day laborers” are not making decisions on harvesting. All the major distilleries raise their own blue agave (BTW, mescal doesn’t require the use of Agave tequiliania weberii), so the “farmers” would be taking orders from the... patron, so to speak.

All that to say, my instinct is to believe the problem with early harvesting is greater outside, than inside, Jalisco. I only drink blancos (kind of like reposados in a Margarita), because I love the taste of agave. There is more selection than ever, and some damn good ones out there; I will, however, look for the bat that I assume will be on the label somewhere.