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A Technical Guide for Wine Producers
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RECENT ARTICLES | WYNBOER HOME
A CLEAN AND GREEN WINE INDUSTRY
Environmental concern
Throughout the world environmental concern is no longer a topic for discussion by the so-called "greens" only. The impact of environmental changes has become so obvious that politicians, economists, several other professions and the general consumer also approach and "use" it as a focus point. The climate, a complex effect of the environment, is changing. Polar ice is melting, wind and rainfall patterns alter and sensitive eco-systems are under pressure. Wine industries too are unable to escape these realities.
If the activities of the wine industry, from viticulture to the supply of the finished product to the consumer, are taken into account, the impact on the environment may be enormous:
The list may be expanded even further, but the above will suffice to confirm how important responsible environmental management is from wine industries’ point of view.
The debate surrounding this topic has coined terminology that was previously unheard of in the wine industry. The most important concepts are explained in this article.
Current use of fungicides, chemical herbicides and chemical preparatories in conventional agricultural and vinification practices disrupts the balance of all forms of life, which will threaten the sustainability of nature if it continues unabated.
The application of correct biodiversity principles aims to minimise the loss of threatened natural habitat in order to support sustainable production. In South Africa its application resorts under the Integrated Production of Wine (IPW) system. An industry initiative under the aegis of the Wine and Spirit Board, it is a system which uses Mother Nature to her full potential, with the least amount of human intervention. If implemented correctly, it may result in environmentally friendly production of wine (www.ipw.co.za).
Organic cultivation and winemaking maintain an ecological system approach which conserves natural resources and strives for biodiversity. It is applied by using mostly biological disease control, maximising the recycling of nutrients, regenerating the soil and eliminating GMO organisms, radiation, pesticides, chemical weed control and synthetic fertilisation (www.fetzer.com).
Biodynamic cultivation is another level of environmentally friendly cultivation that requires the addition of 1 to 100 grams of a catalyst per hectare, whereby an attempt is made to revive and maintain the cycle of the natural processes.
Global warming is the result of the increasing release of hothouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere, which may cause temperature increases of 2 to 3°C within the next half century. If prolonged, this trend may eventually result in the demise of the planet (Bonthuys, 2007). In 2000 the USA and South Africa respectively released 6 928 and 417 million tons of hothouse gases (in carbon dioxide equivalent) (Bonthuys, 2008).
The carbon footprint is the numeric valuation of the hothouse releases by countries, industries or individual instances, giving a comparative indication of their releases (Anonymous).
The water footprint is the second footprint left by humans. The carbon footprint initially received the bulk of the attention, but the latter features increasingly. Each individual can calculate his or her footprint by making certain assumptions. This obviously includes the total amount of water required to produce the finished product. One glass of wine, for example, requires 120 litres of water (Tempelhoff, 2008).
Subsequent articles in this series will discuss the various aspects in greater detail.
References
Anonymous. 2008. Calculating environmental impact. Australian Viticulture 12(2): 50. |
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