The family of Adam R. Kovacevich '99 owns a grape farm in California's San Joaquin Valley, covered with vines, but a long way from Harvard's ivy-covered halls.

The 650-acre Kovacevich vineyards--which make up slightly less than 1 percent of California's total grape acreage--are located just outside Bakers-field, Calif., in the heart of the state's agricultural region.

John J. Kovacevich and his son, Adam's brother, John Jr., spend more than eight hours each day on their non-union farm.

"Some farmers are definitely gentleman farmers, and farm from the office, but both my brother and my father are in the fields all day. They come home every night with big stains on their jeans," Adam Kovacevich says.

From the grower's perspective, says the elder John Kovacevich, the recent controversy over Harvard Dining Services' grape boycott seems surprising.

Student activists who support the HDS boycott claim that non-unionized grape pickers are exploited by their employers. According to United Farm Workers (UFW) fact sheets distributed in the dining halls, the average worker receives little more than minimum wage and no benefits or job security for working with dangerous pesticides and without toilets or drinking water.

But John Kovacevich says that the UFW's position does not adequately represent the conditions of workers on his lands and that the activist rhetoric obscures the realities of grape farming.

"I didn't even realize [the boycott] was going on anymore until Adam told me," he says.

The elder Kovacevich says he remembers when the UFW was an important group in the valley about 35 years ago. But in recent years, he says, his workers have chosen not to join unions.

"Back in the early '60s we were forced to sign with the UFW, but since then, our pickers have had chances to sign with them but haven't--I don't know why," he says.

Moreover, he says that descriptions of bad working conditions on non-union farms like his are widely exaggerated.

Not only does California have the nation's most stringent agricultural regulations, but John Kovacevich says that he could not staff his farm if he forced his pickers to work under terrible conditions.

"When the grape harvest is going on in our area, there is virtually no available help," he says.

John Kovacevich, who is the the third generation of the family to grow grapes in the San Joaquin Valley since his grandfather emigrated from Yugoslavia, says that many people may not realize that his work-force is made up of repeat workers who live in the area-contrary to the popular image of itinerant migrant labor.

Out of the four workers who oversee the picking crews, Kovacevich says two have been working for him for more than 20 years, and the other two worked in the crews for years before their promo- tions.

"Basically, I grew up with these people," he says, adding that he has a "great relationship" with his staff.