Turf is all the rage these days.

Grass roots. Grass tops. Astroturf. This is the topic, and not on the Home and Garden network.

In the political world, grass roots efforts are those that begin with a popular movement. Grass tops are those that start with people of influence — elected officials, for example — seeking to create momentum on a political issue. Astroturf campaigns are those created by special interests to manipulate public opinion.

The media are instrumental to these campaigns, because newspapers and networks get issues out there and create an echo chamber to make them more prominent in the public mind.

The sophistication of these techniques seems to have grown in the 20 years I’ve been in the newspaper game, in no small part because of the power and ubiquity of e-mails and the Internet.

Further, the approaches have begun to blend. People committed to political change, whether they be peace activists or Central Valley farmers or corporate CEOs, learn tricks and tools from each other.

Clearly, such campaigns are in play with the health care reform debate. But they take place elsewhere, too. Like on Silverado Trail.

Last week, a big blow-up rat appeared at a construction site on the Trail near the Oakville Cross Road.

The spokesman for the rat is Paul Cohen from the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council. Cohen said the contractor on the job is not paying fair wages and benefits. He went on to emphasize that everyone suffers when laborers are underpaid, because workers sometimes can’t afford to live near their jobs, and their families struggle to get by and share the wealth with others.

However, when we asked Cohen what the wages were on the job the rat was protesting, he said he didn’t know.

Mark Grassi of Napa replied to our request for a comment, as well. Grassi Construction, Inc. is the lead contractor on the Silverado Trail job.

He acknowledged his firm is non-union — which is likely the heart of the issue — but said his firm pays better than most of his rivals and that he has a stable, long-term workforce.

He said the carpenters’ union misfired by sending the rat to a Grassi job, as many of the subcontractors he works with are union.

Clearly, the presence of the rat has to do with a larger issue of the day — the role of organized labor at a time of diminished work and wealth.

 But it is not at all clear that the rat was appearing in the right place — on the right turf — to stage the debate.