How Conventional Viticulture is Hurting You & the Planet
If the current pandemic taught us anything, it is to be more aware of how our money is impacting our community and the environment. After all, knowledge gives us the power to make a small difference in this ever-changing world by supporting small businesses be it your local fruit and veg stand to your independent wine merchant. By definition, viticulture is the cultivation of grapes and is agricultural science and in turn, results in a beverage that may inspire one to solve the world’s problems or merely to just enjoy a glass of wine after a long Zoom meeting. However, how is one to enjoy that glass of wine if it’s made by a vineyard that uses conventional practices?
The goal of conventional viticulture is to churn out record-high production levels while keeping labour costs down. With the rise of the industrial revolution, viticulture adapted mass chemical spraying, mechanization, and irrigation. This has a severe impact on the product that one purchases and ingests, but also on the environment. As is the bane of all gardeners, weeds exist also in a vineyard, and take away energy from vines to produce grapes. Weeds are killed off by herbicides, a synthetic chemical spray, and they stunt the vineyard’s ecosystem. If there is no natural ecosystem, nutrients cannot be produced to sustain a vine naturally. Pesticides and fungicides are used to kill off unwanted pests and fungi in viticulture, but can stunt a vine’s immune system to fight off diseases naturally. Any residual chemicals seep into groundwater, which can damage the environment even further. Furthermore, using these chemicals raise ethical questions because it increases the risk of poisoning vineyard workers, the consumer and the environment. How these sprays are employed can be done by workers or by tractors that use petrol and diesel that also emit CO2 , which increases the greenhouse effect. Finally, we are in the midst of a global water shortage, and The Water Footprint Network estimates that 5 litres of water make one 125ML of wine, without any irrigation used. Conventional viticulture may use irrigation in the form of flooding vineyards, which is exactly what it sounds like and is costly.
So what can vineyards do to move away from conventional viticulture? There are three main routes for vineyards to consider in becoming more environmentally friendly: Sustainable, Organic, and Biodynamic farming. These methods have a common goal: to look after earth and vine for generations to come.
What the heck is Organic Wine?
Organic wine is made from organically grown grapes based on practices to improve the soil and celebrate the itty bitty critters that thrive in it like earthworms. Organic producers do not use manufactured chemicals and they use natural methods. This can be in the form of organic compost, natural fertilisers like animal dung and natural predators like ladybirds, to combat invasions and restore the natural equilibrium in the vineyard. Organic producers can use copper sprays to use against mildew, but only spray when necessary. Organic wines can be either officially certified or unofficially made by winemakers who practice organic principles in the vineyard. Official or not, the aim remains the same: to maintain the soil’s natural ecological balance.
What the heck is Biodynamic Wine?
Biodynamic wine takes organic practices to the next level and farming is dedicated by the movement of the stars, planets, and moon. It’s a philosophy started by Rudolph Steiner and Maria Thun in 1924 with the intention of doing what is right by nature and the universe. A vineyard that practices biodynamic principles is a closed ecosystem and uses homeopathic remedies that are called ‘preparations’. From using cow horns to composts filled with yarrow, chamomile and nettle, these preparations treat diseases, keep pests away and connect the earth to the cosmos while humans act as whirling wine dervishes.
