Challenge

"A cocktail of up to ten different pesticides can be detected in German predicate and quality wines" this shocking fact was published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2010. Throughout Europe, around 60 percent of the fungal toxins used in agriculture are used in viticulture – a long-term average of around 90,000 tons per year. In 2015, the state-owned Julius Kühn Institute for Agricultural Research (Viticulture in Siebeldingen) commented on the European use of chemical substances in viticulture that it was a “really high value”. Spraying is particularly strong against fungal diseases such as powdery mildew. Also nationally, about 3000 tons of chemical agents are applied to the vineyards every year in Germany for wine production, which heavily burden our nature with plants and living beings and are also detectable in the wines.

Healthy and low-pest vines are the basic requirement for two essential aspects:

1. The use of pesticides is reduced, thereby increasing the quality and quantity of the grapes and wine produced.

2. The environment and nature are burdened with fewer pollutants (pesticides) over many years - the agricultural areas are managed more sustainably and this is good for people's health.