One of France’s most venerated winemakers, whose vineyards supply leading restaurants, including those owned by Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay, will this week risk a six-month prison sentence or a large fine for the sake of both his grapes and, he says, future generations who will want to enjoy the fruit of his soil, reports The Guardian.
Thibault Liger-Belair, an organic wine producer, is defying orders to spray a pesticide on his vines because of an outbreak 40 kilometres from his Burgundy and Beaujolais vineyards of flavescence dorée. The disease, which kills young vines and damages the productivity of older ones, is spread by an insect called the leafhopper.
Liger-Belair, whose family have been cultivating vines since the early 18th century, has been told to use the treatment on some of his vines, but not all, because his Moulin-à-Vent vineyard straddles two administrative districts, in one of which the order to spray does not apply.
Liger-Belair, who is making a stand because he believes the insecticides destroy the soil, has been summoned to appear in court in Villefranche-sur-Saône on Tuesday. He says: “Others have also decided not to use the insecticide, but they just buy the product and don’t use it. I want to show that decisions are being made that are not from the people. For this sort of crime it is six months in jail or a €30,000 fine, but I am not worried about that.
“This is not the fight of an organic farmer. If I had this problem of the flavescence dorée, I would use the treatment, of course. If you can prove to me there is a problem, then fine, but it isn’t true. I don’t want to ruin my vineyard. The vineyards and the natural environment were here before me and they will be here after me. We have to protect that for the next generation. This type of decision is that we ruin the quality and life in the soil. We kill a lot of species and we won’t be able to find them in the future.”
Avaaz, a campaigning group that promotes activism, has taken Liger-Belair’s cause to its heart. Nearly 140,000 people have signed a petition calling on the local legislator to drop the case.
Liger-Belair said that just one example – the plight of a “small bee” that has been present on his vineyards for years – should alone cause officialdom to doubt its policy. “When we use so much insecticide, what problems will there be in the future? We have to conserve these places for the future and think of the problems we are creating."