Climate Week: Regenerative Agriculture in the Vines, a Growing (!) Movement!
9/28/19 -
With Climate Week focusing our attention on the crisis of global warming, we have been slightly encouraged that the potential role of agriculture in sequestering carbon is being discussed more seriously in the scientific and farming communities, and has even been mentioned by politicians here and abroad. The basic idea is that regenerative agriculture, one aspect of which is "no-till farming" which maintains cover crops year round and minimizes plowing, can result in an increased rate of carbon capture by vegetation, storing the CO2 in the soil where it belongs. This, in turn, would be a major contribution towards lowering atmospheric CO2 to safe levels.
"Conventional" farming and the plowing and chemical use associated with it has led to the degradation of agricultural soils, causing an increase, rather than an absorbtion, of atmospheric CO2. Two books I read seven or eight years ago put the problem in a historical context and explained the situation - and what can be done about it - in clear scientific terms. First, "Dirt, The Erosion of Civilizations" by David Montgomery (University of California Press) is a depressing chronicle of how people throughout history have destroyed their soils, and subsequently themselves, through excessive plowing. Examples include ancient Anatolia and the Tigris/Euphrates valley, ancient Rome and the American South. "Le sol, la terre et les champs" by Claude & Lydia Bourguignon (Editions Sang de la terre) is both a fascinating textbook explaining the world beneath our feet, and an impassioned plea for sane agriculture based on farming methods that plant crops directly into cover crops that enrich and protect the life of the soil. "We must abandon plowing which destroys organic matter and exposes soil to erosion and replace it by direct seeding into cover crops."
Although vineyard acreage represents a very small portion of international agricultural land, viticulture that minimizes plowing and encourages growth between the vines can make a meaningful contribution to the effort to sequester carbon. In general, plowing vineyards became the norm in the 19th century when hand-tilling of high-density plantings (up to 30,000 - 40,000 plants per hectare in some areas) was replaced by horse-drawn plows, then tractors, in widely spaced low-density vineyards planted in rows. (Of course this scenario varies widely in different regions.) Before dessication and erosion from plowing could destroy vineyard soils, the 1950s brought herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilizers and systemic fungicides - plowing was no longer necessary, but the life of the soil, with its amazing complexity and natural functions, was largely destroyed. As were the wines: "These wines, products of soils biologically dead, no longer gave with age flavors of the earth, of truffle, of mushroom, of undergrowth, of dead leaf, of silex, of stone. Goodbye to beautiful minerality in the finish. They became flat, empty, exhausted by aging." ("Le sol, la terre et les champs") Fortunately there were some who refused to accept the new regimen, such as the Guillot family at the Clos des Vignes du Maynes, or who quickly rejected chemical farming and sought organic certification, such as the Guion famiy in Bourgueil (1964) and many others.
This digression brings us back to plowing - as winemakers realized that the quality of their wines was suffering and that agricultural chemicals were poisoning their soils, they turned towards organic and Biodynamic farming, and plowing done to control weeds or to aerate the soil once again became commonplace. Thanks to the work of the Bourguignons and many other soil scientists around the world, a new generation of vignerons is realizing that a healthy living soil is best maintained by minimizing plowing and maintaining vegetation covering the soil as much as possible. This enables the amazing factory of soil flora and fauna to do its work, combining the inorganic material of bedrock with the organic material of plants - powered by the sun - creating the nutrients and micro-nutrients needed for life - and great wine. While the motivations of winemakers may center around the health of their workers and their soils - and the quality of their wines - a growing number are recognizing the ability of living soils to sequester carbon and are ready to become part of a world-wide movement among winemakers and progressive farmers to combat global warming.
A few statistics:
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that making changes to how we use forests, grow crops, and raise livestock could yield upward of 9 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions reductions per year by 2050.
Researchers for Project Drawdown estimated that an increase in regenerative agriculture from the current 108 million acres to 1 billion acres by 2050 could result in a total reduction of 23.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide, from both sequestration and reduced emissions. This is equivalent to 65% of the world’s carbon emissions measured in 2015.
We'd like to thank a few of our winemaker friends who have shared their knowledge with us on this topic, principally Didier Barouillet (Clos Roche Blanche), Francois Chidaine, Eric Texier, Christian Ducroux, Elisabetta Foradori (who specializes in biodiversity) and Peio Espil (Domaine Ilarria). When I asked Peio many years ago how he felt about plowing, he smiled and said "I haven't plowed in 20 years!" Below is a short list of growers whose vineyard work produces beautiful wines, and fights global warming as well. We'll offer longer lists, with information about how the growers are working, in subsequent emails. And we'd like to recommend David Montgomery's new book "Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life." For more information check out RegenerationInternational.org, perhaps the main organization promoting regenerative agriculture around the world, and FoodTank.com has links to many other groups. David Lillie
