DIJON – A winemaker in France's Burgundy region will appear in court today for refusing to use pesticides in his organic vineyard despite a government order.

Environmentalists have backed his refusal but other local winemakers have denounced the support campaign around him as full of "falsehoods" and defended their practices.

Emmanuel Giboulot is being pursued by an arm of the agriculture ministry for not heeding a local directive in Burgundy's wine-growing Cote d'Or area to regularly treat vines against a leaf-hopping insect that causes an infectious disease called "flavescence doree".

The disease first appeared in 1949 in France's southwestern Armagnac region. It then spread steadily, reaching the wine-producing areas of Cognac, Languedoc, northern and southern Rhone, the Loire Valley and Bordeaux. There is no cure yet for the bacterial infection, which can kill young vines and greatly reduce the productivity of older ones.

After the discovery of the disease in Burgundy's Beaune region, the local administration last June ordered all vineyard owners in the Cote d'Or area to treat their vineyards with pesticides.

But Giboulot has doggedly defied the order and shunned pesticides on his 10-hectare (24-acre) estate straddling the Cote de Beaune, the southern part of the Cote d'Or that is home to the great names in Burgundy wine.

He argues that the order would destroy the work of his father, who converted to biodynamic farming in the 1970s. Giboulot was prosecuted after a check by local agricultural authorities in July and faces up to six months in prison and a 30,000-euro ($41,000) fine.

His defiance has won the support of leading environmental groups including Greenpeace and France's Green party, part of the ruling coalition with President Francois Hollande's Socialists.

His supporters will stage a demonstration outside the court in Dijon where Giboulot is due to appear today.

Environmentalists argue that instead of ordering the sweeping use of pesticides, local authorities should only monitor the disease, uproot affected vines and limit the mandatory use of pesticides to the areas under threat.

Local officials insist Giboulot is not being persecuted and that the step is vital to save vineyards across the region.

"All vines must be treated by everyone for the treatment to work," said Olivier Lapotre, the head of the local food department. "It's a deadly disease for vines and very contagious and it's because of this that such measures are obligatory," he said.*AFP

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