|
|
At the UNESCO Earth University in Paris, scientists and viticulture managers explained how resilient soils are. At the same time, they lamented a lack of respect for the matter. Marc-André Selosse, a lecturer at the Natural History Museum in Paris, said: "The soil problem is cultural. It is the placenta of humanity, it does not have a good image, it is dirty, and we bury the dead in it. People do not see soil as a solution".
Yet the drought of 2022 had little impact on the life of vineyard soils, he said, because their buffer capacities would compensate for such fluctuations. With one million bacteria per gram, soil has the greatest biodiversity of all habitats. This has been damaged by modern agriculture with ploughing and the use of herbicides, but Selosse said: "We have lost populations and diversity, but at the moment no species has disappeared."
Mathilde Boisseau, director of vines and wine at Hennessy in Cognac, urged her colleagues to take action. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, she said, but everyone knows how to apply soil greening. "We manage our own 180 hectares of vineyards every day and use them as a laboratory. We have planted 7 km of hedges. For eight years we've been experimenting and drawing conclusions that we share with our suppliers." According to Boisseau, this would protect 32,000 hectares of vineyards.
Speakers also called for lessons on environmental science in schools. "Even in agricultural science schools, the same amount of maths is taught as biology. An interdisciplinary approach is the only solution," Selosse said.
(al / Source: vitisphere; Photo: Alexander Lupersböck)