It's amazing how from nothing but sand how Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers are pioneering desert agriculture and viniculture. The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research seems to be addressing climate change in the best place -- the desert, where it is already dry and hot.
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Considering how dry it is I do not understand why they need to spray for fungicide at all. Compare the Rhone Valley where no reasonable farmer finds any need to spray.
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If we cannot take care of our planet. If we are the causes behind climate change, then why do we even deserve to have wine, a beautiful gift from the planet earth we are actively destroying? Maybe, just maybe, if wine production plummets, pundits and skeptics will perhaps at that point realize the severity of our actions and the impact they have on all aspects of life.
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And as the planet edges closer and
closer to extinction, due to
man’s negligence, and the
powers and spin of dedicated
individual and systemic stakeholder’s
alt-facts about the myths of climate change,
THEY
will be able to drink to their success in
empowering passive complacency by
all-too-many
as well as active complicity by so many others.
A toast?
Great article! Grow grapes in Texas Hill Country and this article proves you're never too old too learn new tricks.
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Any activity with the word "farming" in it involves gambling. So glad to learn about this latest effort. Lord only knows we need more wine.
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In the botanical sense, v vinifera is easily adaptable to arid climates; this has been known and understood for at least 5000 years. All you really need is human expertise in foliage management (shade) and accessing water. In this regard, drip pipes have been used in Australia for some time now.
It's also well-understood that v vinifera can thrive on water allocations far less than that given to the plump grapes that produce our normal table wine. To use less--and therefore to conserve this precious resource-- is called 'dry farming'. This, as well, has been employed by the indigenous Palestinians for millennia.
So the real environmental issue here is the misuse of water. In other words, Global Warming will create water shortages which will demand decisions. For example, will the Arab population be deprived of access so that that Israeli growers can produce European-style wine?
Moreover, your title is grossly misleading: Global Warming will not cause Europe to become a desert. Rather, the station was devised to attract the investment of European growers.
Now as for the future of wine in an ecologically responsible sense, two facets come to mind: first, because warmer climates produce riper grapes, we'll either have to abandon our concept of varietal character or plant newer, colder climes. Next, water shortages will oblige us to turn our tastes towards a far more viney, and less fruit forward, style of wine.
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Once again, as in so many domains, Israel leads the way. I was a little nonplussed that hydroponic agriculture was made no mention of, from people with firsthand experience there I've heard that Israel is helping pioneer this as well.
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@bill harris: an oh-so-predictable aggrieved anti-Occidentalist, I see. Israel is a "colony" in the same manner as the US or, for that matter, every other country when you go back far enough. We'll just conveniently avoid the fact that the Holy Land has never been purely Arab (even before the British Mandate, Palestine was never less than 1/6 Jewish), or that with the exception of the 1956 war Arabs (not Israel) have always been the aggressors, or that time & again Arabs have demonstrated in both word & deed an unwillingness to countenance any state of equal coexistence with minorities.
But then again, those who begrudge the West its success & prosperity seem to venerate the losers of history, and conflate weakness with moral virtue.
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Follow the money follow the money folks while Trump loyalists are fed denial pills and do nothing.
>For years, the wine industry has been developing new vine stock that will thrive in hot/dry climates.
>The forestry industry, for a longer period, has been developing new stocks for their industrial tree farms(disguised as forests).
>Telecommunications companies are preparing for inundation Armageddon as water levels creep up over moisture unacceptable buried lines and equipment. 5G doesn't float!
>The USA's War Department has split with the White House, treating rising sea levels as a national security threat and starting planning and preparation. (No, F15's cannot land on or take off from low-lying airstrips which, it turns out, there are many. No, waterskis fighter jets, a Sharpie solution. won't work).
>Trump enterprises will not spend its own money. It wants Scotland's citizens to foot the bill to build a sea wall protecting trump's Scottish golf course from rising seas.
Just follow the money, folks.
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I wonder if Cornell AgriTech (former name, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station) at Geneva NY is involved with this project.
Viticulture in New York State has very different climatic and soil conditions but a long history introducing different varieties of grapes.
This article appealed to me for several reasons: I am concerned about the environment, I love wine and I've been working as a farmhand on the weekends this entire summer (which should continue for another six or so weeks). It is fascinating, some of the techniques and approaches described here to get plants to grow in the most unlikely of places. It is also a hopeful sign that it might get more people attracted to farming. I can tell you right now that most of the physical work is grueling in nature but deeply satisfying at day's end. I can also tell you that, yes, it is very risky, and farmers are like "gamblers" as quoted in the article. I'm seeing first-hand how a run of uncooperative weather, lack of proper maintenance of the planting beds, or simply unfortunate timing results in shriveled cucumbers and growth-stunted tomatoes. ... Cheers to the folks working in this particular vineyard, and I do hope their massive efforts pay off in the long term.
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Although with a focus on wine, it is still encouraging to read about efforts to tweak our agricultural practices so that we can survive in an ever changing climate. We need to apply comparable research to all aspects of our lives that are, or certainly will be, impacted by climate change. Clearly, our current government is doing nothing to combat actual change (more like exacerbating it). Even if it did perhaps it’s too late to turn the boat around, so we must figure out how future generations will survive. Please continue to report on all such efforts...
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