Charles C Mann’s epic book, The Wizard and the Prophet, is ostensibly about the lives of two Americans, Norman Borlaug and William Vogt. Born at the beginning of the 20th century, both considered themselves environmentalists. They never spoke to each other, but both of them were founders of two of the most significant environmental/agricultural movements that underpin our entire existential dilemma today: the Green Revolution (Borlaug) and agroecology (Vogt).
What the book is really about is the schism between what Mann calls ‘techno-optimism – the view that science and technology, properly applied, can help us produce our way out of our predicament’, and ‘the belief that unless humankind drastically reduces consumption [it] will overwhelm the planet’s ecosystems’.
Mann called Borlaug ‘the Wizard’. He was the driving force behind the Green Revolution, which, post-World War Two, put machinery, technology, agrochemicals and human control firmly at the heart of agriculture. Borlaug believed that technology could and should overcome planetary boundaries and that Nature should be controlled by science in order to best serve human beings. ‘Wizards see possibilities as inexhaustible’, seeing ‘growth and development as the lot and blessing of our species’.
Inexhaustible possibilities or a respect for the sovereignty of Nature?
Vogt, ‘the Prophet’, was vehemently opposed to this view. Vogt believed that many of the answers to agricultural challenges lay in the old ways of doing things, because they respected the sanctity and sovereignty of Nature. He believed we have to work within the boundaries of Nature. Mann wrote, ‘Simply giving people better tools, Vogt believes, will only help people hit limits faster. If ten fish remain in the pond, the solution to running out of fish is not more efficient nets.’
These two views, at the far ends of a spectrum, represent our complex relationship with Nature. Mann points out that ‘the conflict between these visions is not between good and evil, but between different ideas of the good life, between ethical orders that give priority to personal liberty and those that give priority to what might be called connection’.
‘Sixty years on, we’re still grappling with the same debate.’
Sixty years on, we’re still grappling with the same debate. For wine producers, on the frontlines of climate change, it’s a clamorous imperative. The agglomeration of droughts, falling water tables, floods, heatwaves, unseasonal frosts and hail, wildfires, declining soil health, declining biodiversity and rocketing costs of inputs (fuel, fertilisers, pesticides etc) thanks to war and political chaos, mean that producers face some very hard choices, all of which require serious investment in time and/or money, all of which come with risk. It is, essentially, a question of survival.
In many ways, this ‘Wizard and Prophet’ story mirrors the way that wine producers react to the climate emergency. Aside from those in denial (the issue is too overwhelming – best to ignore it, carry on as usual or even double down, hope it will go away), I see producers responding in two ways: adaptation and mitigation. Adaption (the Wizard) says: climate change is here and there is nothing I can do to reverse or stop it, so I will use science and technology to overcome the challenges. Mitigation (the Prophet) says: I will reduce my carbon footprint, rebuild soil life and structure, regenerate natural hydrology cycles, rebuild biodiversity, reduce chemical and mechanical inputs. Some producers approach the challenges wearing a Wizard’s hat and carrying a Prophet’s scroll – using technology to both reduce their environmental footprint and adapt to the chaos of the new normal.
Who are the Wizards and who are the Prophets behind our wines?
What’s interesting (and quite fun!) is to see who the Wizards are and who the Prophets are behind our wines. Who are the Prophets wearing wizard hats, and who are the Wizards carrying scrolls?
Julien Brocard, in Burgundy, is one of the latter. His Prophet soul shines through in many way – his domaine has 110 ha of vineyard, all of which is farmed organically and biodynamically. His team are planting trees, with a target of 30,000 by 2030. Until the Green Revolution, which fiercely promoted huge tracts of monoculture, trees were always part of vineyards. They provided shelter and food (nuts, fruit) to vineyard workers. They provide wind breaks, prevent wind erosion, draw water up to the soil surface in dry weather, pull water down in wet weather, support rich mycorrhizal networks which keep plants fed with nutrients and protect them from disease. They are vibrant hubs of biodiversity as they provide habitat and food for bats, birds and insects. JM Brocard also sows ground cover to protect the soil and encourage insects.
But Brocard also wears a (very tall) Wizard hat! The domaine is using viti-bots to roll the cover crops and manage undervine plant growth. They are also trialling drones for spraying, which would mean far less compaction from tractors, less exposure to sulphur for vineyard workers, and far more precision in spraying only the vines and areas of the vineyard that are vulnerable.
Maximin Grünhaus in the Ruwer use drones instead of helicopters to spray their terrifyingly steep slate vineyards (pictured above), and by doing so, significantly reduce consumption of aviation fuel, chemical drift, and overall use of chemicals. Johannes Gunderloch uses solar-powered drones to spray biodynamic preparations on his vines – another Wizard with a Prophet soul.
JM Vincent in Santenay also does the old-ways-new-ways thing by using a little caterpillar tractor (which reduces compaction and soil damage) to not only do general vineyard work but to pull his grandfather’s old plough.
In Umbria, Scacciadiavoli with its 120 years of history, is a true Prophet-Wizard hybrid. They were the first in the region to modernise their vineyards from vines planted up trees to the guyot stake-and-wire training, and the first to transition their winemaking from rustic Italian methods to elegant French methods. Ironically, they are now reviving the ancient practice of vite maritata (married vines) by planting a new vineyard that literally has vines growing up living trees. San Polino in Montalcino, Tuscany, has also planted native maples in their vineyards.
Wizards abound. I’ve pored over satellite footage as winegrowers showed me how satellites and incredibly clever software can show them which micro-parcels of a vineyard need irrigation or spraying or canopy management. I’ve seen weather stations in vineyards that track the moisture or heat in winds and so help or warn vineyard managers about potential mildew or sunburn problems. At the University of Geisenheim, they are trialling solar-panel canopies for vineyards. And in Mornington Peninsula, I’ve visited a winery that is recycling its millions of litres of winery wastewater to irrigate its vineyards.
There are many Prophets in our midst, too. In one of Mendel’s vineyards in Mendoza, you can see ancient olive trees interplanted with ancient vines (planted in 1928) – the wisdom of old trees interlocked with the wisdom of old vines, their roots reaching deep and in doing so holding soil, soil life and water deep in the ground. This is resilience.
Guillemot-Michel in Viré-Clessé practise the extraordinary, ancient art of phytotherapy, treating their vines with tinctures distilled, brewed, infused and fermented from plants. More ancient wisdom in our modern age.
Horses are coming back to the vineyards to work the soils. Geyerhof in Austria and Elisa Guérin in Beaujolais both eschew the speed and efficiency of tractor ploughing (which uses fuel and compacts the soil) for the much slower, much more gentle rhythm of a stately workhorse, thereby reducing their carbon footprint and naturally fertilising the soil at the same time.
Borlaug and Vogt carried out tremendously important work, laying much of the groundwork for how we approach agriculture in general and, in our case, viticulture. But both of them were guilty (in my opinion) of partisan thinking. The environmental challenges we have created on Earth with our ferocious consumption of fossil fuels, chemicals and material goods have not only created a climate crisis, but a water crisis, a pollution crisis, a landfill/waste crisis, a biodiversity crisis and a health crisis. None of this can be solved with a silver bullet or a single ideological approach. It takes both Prophets and Wizards, and maybe Wizphets, to ensure that our beautiful planet, and wine, will be here a hundred years hence. We need to support them.
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