Heroes Not Zombies

This is what the world looks like around me just now. For the last seven years I’ve lived at the edge of a village just south of the town of Cognac. Cognac isn’t a very big town but it’s name, at least, is known around the world, because all around this region are vineyards dedicated to the work of producing a drink which is also called “cognac”.

Looking out over rows of vines has been a completely new experience for me. I come from Scotland after all! I’ve loved watching the seasons manifest themselves as they sweep through the vineyards and they are probably at their most beautiful at this time of year.

I’ve watched the vine workers go about their daily tasks through seven annual cycles now and two things have really struck me.

There are times when every single plant is tended by human hand. You’ll see the workers move along the lines, pruning and tying up every single plant, one at a time, from dawn to dusk. That’s the phase I witnessed first when I moved here.

How things progressed from there surprised me. For the rest of the year they use machines. Huge machines and tractors spraying chemicals everywhere. Fungicides, insecticides, herbicides….you can see what all these chemicals have in common – “cides” – “killers”.

Then comes the harvest, frenetic activity from well before dawn to well after dusk, driving up and down the vines in vast metal machines which straddle the vines and strip the grapes from the plants, collecting them in huge tractor pulled trailers.

Then the vineyards quietly turn yellow, golden or red. There’s a silence in these days which has become familiar to me.

I’m not an expert in “viniculture”. I don’t know how to rear and tend to vines to produce the best harvests, but I’m sad that the process seems so reliant on machinery and chemicals around here. And I know that an increasing number of vineyards are going “bio”, switching to methods which require a lot less consumption of chemicals and petroleum.

I don’t know if it’s possible for this “new” organic way to completely replace the high carbon footprint, chemically dependent one, but I hope so. And increasingly I express my preference by choosing the “bio” cognac, pineau and wine, which seems increasingly available.

In this week of COP26 in Glasgow we’re all being made more and more aware of our need to act, not just speak. It’s probably a good sign that I find my own awareness of these issues is increasing and that that’s affecting my decisions and choices.

Nobody says it better than David Attenborough. Here’s his latest speech in Glasgow.