The prosecco hills of Conegliano Valdobbiadene have become a #UNESCO World Heritage Site. (1) However, there is an urgent need to solve a serious public health and ecosystem problem caused precisely by intensive viticulture. The excessive and uncontrolled use of pesticides and other agrotoxics. Organic is the only possible solution, and consumAtors must be the first to impose it.
Prosecco Hills of Conegliano Valdobbiadene, a World Heritage Site
The proclamation of the hills of #Prosecco di Conegliano Valdobbiadene as a World Heritage Site took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, at the 43rd session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. The unanimous vote of the 21 member states confirms the excellent teamwork conducted by the Farnesina with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Tourism (MiPAAFT), the Veneto Region and the committee promoting the candidacy.
‘The beautiful Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene are now the 55th Italian site to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. With the decision of the appropriate UNESCO selection committee, the universal value of a unique cultural and agricultural landscape is recognized, arising from an extraordinary, skillful interaction between an outstanding production activity and the nature of a fascinating territory.’ (Enzo Moavero Milanesi, foreign minister. See footnote 2)
‘The Consortium of Protection of the Prosecco Appellation of Controlled Origin has for years complied with a specification aimed at reducing the impact of the agricultural system as much as possible and prohibiting the use of active ingredients such as glisofate. We believe that this attention to the environment has also contributed to today’s success‘, says the Italian Farmers’ Association. Indeed, the Consortium decided in February 2018 to ban the use of herbicides containing glyphosate And other agrotoxics. Starting 1.1.19, with some exemptions. ‘The ban also extends to all other herbicides except those of natural and biological origin, except in cases of young vineyards within three years of age or in slope areas where it is impossible to use mechanical means‘. (3)
‘This is an extraordinaryachievement, long overdue, a source of pride not only for the Veneto but for all of Italy. A recognition for the uniqueness of the area and its princely product, its economic but also cultural, agricultural, landscape and tourism value. Vineyard hills, unique, unmistakable, that the whole world appreciates, as well as the prosecco produced from its grapes, are finally valued‘ (Massimiliano Giansanti, national president of Confagricoltura). ‘An expected result,’ according to Coldiretti.
Prosecco, public health and environmental issues
The World Heritage nomination had been proposed as early as 2010. But not everyone was nor agrees. Not so are several environmental acronyms-gathered in the Pesticides Action Network (#PAN) and the #StopPesticides March-that have for years denounced the devastating effects of intensive viticulture and the use of agrotoxics in the prosecco supply chain. Environmentalists and residents denounce the dangers to public health and environmental contamination from the agricultural model in vogue. Monoculture and (ab)use of ‘agrochemicals’ (an understatement).
Patrizia Gentilini – a medical oncologist and hematologist and member of ISDE( InternationalNetwork of Physicians for the Environment) – expressed her position right on the heels of the Unesco vote on 6.7.19 in The Daily Fact. ‘Why so much opposition to a candidacy that would formally represent further recognition for our country? The reasons are quickly stated and reside in the fact that the hills of Conegliano Valdobbiadene have now become the symbol of an industrialized wine monoculture that makes immoderate use of pesticides, wipes out biodiversity, increasingly endangers the quality of water, soil, and above all the health of local communities‘. (4)
The citizens of Conegliano had promoted a referendum some time ago to rid their territory of pesticides. They reported the use of unauthorized pesticides, at unpermitted times, violating safety distances and spraying near schools. (5)
The #ColtiviAMOfuturo coordination insists on applying a systemic land strategy aimed at safeguarding the health of residents, nature and biodiversity. In the face of disturbing data on land consumption and agrochemicals in an area already plagued by various environmental contaminations. It is essential to refer to the precautionary principle and activate a series of measures, in prevention and monitoring. Taking into account the additive and synergistic effects of substance cocktails used in vineyards.
The Stop Pesticides March commented on Facebook on the UNESCO proclamation as follows. ‘Pyrrhic victory! Monoculture marketing won. They lost the citizens and the Territory‘. Denouncing, on its website, the ‘territorial marketing‘ of the operation-prosecco. ‘How can the Prosecco Docg area be considered a World Heritage Site, an area where there is ‘industrial’, monocultural, intensive agriculture, an agriculture that poisons surface and groundwater, that deforests, that makes scorched earth of other cultures, ditches, hedges, stable meadows‘. (6)
Organic prosecco, the only real solution
The only solution in the current scenario is to convert the vineyards to the organic system. This is the only way to ensure the health of residents and the protection of the ecosystem. With the added benefit-which Coldiretti itself was finally able to capture after so many years at Vinitaly 2019-of adding value to products that is increasingly recognized by global consumers.
ConsumAtors have a responsibility to force this change by choosing only and strictly organic prosecco. By remunerating, with a slightly higher price on bubbles, respect for nature and its inhabitants. The more cohesive and determined this choice is, the faster and more widespread the conversion process to organic will be. That from a niche segment, albeit a growing one, may become the golden rule. For the good of all.
Dario Dongo and Sabrina Bergamini
Notes
1. Two cultural sites added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
https://en.unesco.org/news/two-cultural-sites-added-unescos-world-heritage-list
2. The Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
https://www.esteri.it/mae/it/sala_stampa/archivionotizie/approfondimenti/2019/07/le-colline-del-prosecco-di-conegliano-e-valdobbiadene-iscritte-nella-lista-del-patrimonio-mondiale-dell-umanita-dell-unesco.html
3. Stop the use of glyphosate: historic breakthrough in the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG area
Stop all’uso del glifosate: svolta storica nell’area del Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG
4. Prosecco a Unesco heritage site? We environmentalists protest, and the reason is quickly stated https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/07/06/prosecco-patrimonio-unesco-noi-ambientalisti-protestiamo-e-il-motivo-e-presto-detto/5303882/
5. Referendum against Prosecco pesticides https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/referendum-contro-i-pesticidi-del-prosecco
6. March stop pesticides
On Unesco’s loss of credibility in Veneto, see https://www.marciastoppesticidi.it/notiziario/162-sulla-perdita-di-credibilita-dell-unesco-in-veneto.html
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Journalist. Consumption, rights, nutrition, social, environment. Head of Consumers Help. She collaborated with ResetDOC, Il Riformista, La Nuova Ecologia, IMGPress.
