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Winemaker in court over refusal to spray vines
A Burgundian organic winemaker has been summoned to court for refusing to spray his vines with a pesticide to prevent the spread of disease.
Thibault Liger-Belair
Thibault Liger-Belair owns two vineyards – one at Nuits-Saint-Georges in Burgundy’s Côte de Nuit and the other at Moulin-à-Vent in Beaujolais.
The biodynamic winemaker has refused to spray vines at his vineyard in Beaujolais with a pesticide to prevent the spread of flavescence dorée following an outbreak 25 miles away in the Mâconnais, prompting the French Ministry of Agriculture to summon him to court.
The disease, which is spread by leaf hopper insects, kills young vines and reduces the productivity of older ones, turning the leaves a golden colour and causing the grapes to shrivel.
Because his vineyard in Beaujolais straddles two departments, the Rhône and the Saône-et-Loire, he argued he did not have to spray as the Rhône department had not ordered it, as reported by RFI.fr.
Liger-Belair argues that the pesticide will not only kill leafhoppers, but also other insects that form part of the balance of nature he has built up in his vineyard.
He added that the site where the disease broke out was in Mâconnais, 25 miles from his property, and occurred among Chardonnay vines, while his vineyard is planted with Gamay.
Last December another biodynamic winemaker from Burgundy, Emmanuel Giboulot, had his conviction for failing to spray his vines overturned on appeal.
Giboulot was fined €500 back in April but a Dijon judge overturned the fine due to a technicality, as the original order to treat vines had not been first been approved by the minister of agriculture. Giboulot called the new ruling a “victory for citizen power”.
Liger-Belair is due to appear before a court in Villefranche-sur-Saône on 19 May.
I suspect Thibault Liger-Belair is using much more toxic pesticides in large doses than the pesticide the government is requiring him to apply to his vineyard. For example, the copper he uses is a synthetic pesticide and is one of the most toxic pesticides used in any vineyard in the world. It is a heavy metal, and several magnitudes worse for the soil than glyphosate. How much sulfur pesticide does he use? Sulfur pesticides are synthetic and derived from petroleum. Does he use Stylet Oil? If he does, and many Demeter certified vineyards do, then he is using a synthetic petrochemical that suffocates ladybugs and bees and many other beneficials, and is often used by Demeter certified vineyards in repeated and large doses.
Is the pesticide in question Dinotefuran? If so, the Environmental Impact Quotient as established by Cornell University, is 22, and it is used once or twice in a dose of a few ounces per acre. Compare Dinotefuran’s 22 in small ounces per acre to an EIQ of about 40 to 65 for his synthetic copper pesticide applied in pounds per acre once or maybe several times a season, and an EIQ of 32 for his synthetic sulfur pesticide applied in a dose of several pounds per acre repeatedly during a season. If Stylet Oil is used, the EIQ is 30 but the dose is a gallon or more per acre and applied several times a season. I am using pesticides used in Demeter Certified vineyards in California. Sorry not using the metric system. You can see the gentleman’s environmental impact is huge compared to a modern farmer using low risk pesticides.