Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
Shark Attack
On supermarket shelves back home almost all baby food was organic. In France, in our area
at least, there appeared to be no organic baby food. Bio, short for
biologique
, the term for
organic, was far from accepted. Despite this, since coming to France we were even more
convinced of the benefits of organic.
Themorewereadaboutthetoxicchemicalsusedinconventionalfarming,thelessweliked
them. They were bad for the land, the people applying them, the wildlife and the consumers
of the result. Labels that stated 'do not enter the vineyard for 48 hours after you have sprayed
thisproduct'couldnotbegood.Whywouldwewanttoputthemontograpesthatweregoing
into the food chain?
On the opposite side of our valley, a couple of kilometres away, was a vineyard that looked
like a desert. Sean nicknamed the incumbent 'Napalm Nic'. He sprayed herbicide over the
entire vineyard, leaving not a blade of grass standing.
'He does it to save doing the work of mowing the grass and ploughing,' said Cécile. 'It en-
courages erosion and is bad for the soil. Eventually it will be as lifeless as a desert.'
Up close, the soil looked sick. Later in the season we saw Napalm Nic using a chemical
spray for vine shoot removal. He was doing it to cut costs so he could supply cheap wine but
also ensuring carcinogenic chemical residues for the consumer.
With spring underway we needed an alternative to herbicide fast if we were to stick to our
organic principles. Sean was up to his eyes with work in the vineyard - mowing, plough-
ing and raising the wires of the trellising - so it was up to me to find a weeding solution.
We mow and plough alternating rows to prevent the competition, from plants like grass and
weeds that grow between the rows, hampering the vines' growth. The new weeding solution
needed to remove these plants from under the trellising and around the vine trunks.
Cécile, my secret weapon, appeared with a yellow book of equipment and supplies for
vineyards that included descriptions and price ranges for all available mechanical weeders.
At first Cécile had been sceptical about us going organic but now she fully supported our
conviction. Atthe start shewasworried wewouldn't cope, even farming conventionally.She
had seen how committed we were to learning but also to our organic philosophy.
