More Context on the ANSES Decision to Pull Copper Fungicides from Use
Clean Creatives is out with its 2025 “F-List”
More context on the decision by French authorities to withdraw authorization for most copper-based fungicides, raising concerns among organic growers who fear a lack of alternatives will push them back toward synthetic products. Despite this, some 17 copper products remain available for now, though their future is uncertain. Meanwhile, Champagne’s adoption of organic practices is growing but remains slow, with only 7% of production certified organic or in conversion, and progress on reducing herbicides has stalled. Caroline Henry on France’s PestiRiv study, which confirmed widespread exposure to vineyard pesticides among local populations.
Viticulture
France: We covered the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety, ANSES’ decision last week to not renew marketing authorization for 20 out of 22 copper-containing fungicides last week. In her Wine News in 5 segment, Samantha Cole Johnson has additional reporting. Jacisrobinson.com and The Drinks Business
For 2026 harvest vinegrowers still have access to 17 copper-based fungicides which have yet to come up for renewal.
However, producers wonder if these products will be subject to the same restrictions when they do.
Julien Franclet, president of SudVinBio, was quoted by Vitisphere as saying, ‘We knew that copper was in the hot seat. But when ANSES released its report on the cost of its ban, we thought it would stall while viable alternatives were found. But that’s not the case. If these rules become widespread, organic producers will revert to conventional production, and conventional producers will use even more synthetic products.’
The Drinks Business also published a piece on the situation, noting, according to data from the Itab Institute, organic growers in France used an average of 3.72 kg/ha of copper in 2024. But usage was higher in some regions, including Nouvelle-Aquitaine (4.8 kg/ha), Champagne (4.55 kg/ha) and Burgundy (4.3 kg/ha).
Champagne: Harpers covers Champagne’s slow but steady march toward organics.
Drappier is the largest house now approaching full organic certification, and went carbon neutral in 2016.
Louis Roederer owns the largest organically certified vineyard in Champagne, at 135 hectares, while Lanson, Perrier-Jouët and Mumm have adopted some organic, biodynamic or regenerative methods.
At present around 7% of Champagne’s production is certified organic or in conversion – a big increase over the 1% that was organic in 2009, though lower as a proportion of the total than in many French regions.
There was a slight rise in conversions last year, despite weather challenges, though Jérôme Bourgeois, president of the Association des Champagnes Biologiques (ACB), concedes that: “It’s at a bit of a plateau.”
There has been criticism in recent years of Champagne’s slow progress in reducing the use of herbicides. In 2018, a goal was announced of zero herbicides by the end of 2025, which was rescinded last year.
Caroline Henry reports the Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail (ANSES) and Santé publique France release of the long-awaited PestiRiv study. Terroir
The aim of this 2022 study was to determine if a correlation exists between vine treatments and pesticides contamination in the local population.
A sample of around 2700 people, split between 1946 adults, aged between 18 and 79 and 742 children, between 3 and 7 years old, covered twenty-three test sites, divided in 265 zones.
Potential exposure to fifty-six substances were tested, both as absorbed by the test population through hair and urine samples, as well as being present in the ambient air, interior air, dust and garden produce.
All but four of these chemicals were authorized for vineyard use – the four unauthorized substances had been banned between 2018, when a pilot study was initiated, and 2022, the year the actual study was conducted.
They include products used almost exclusively in viticulture (eg folpel, a fungicide aimed to combat powdery and downy mildew as well as botrytis), products with wider agriculture use (eg. the herbicide glyphosate) and products more widely sprayed to kill pests (eg pyrethroids).
Pesticide usage in the test area and weather conditions (predominantly wind) were also considered when analyzing the results.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Global: At the UN this week a total of 120 countries and the European Union announced new goals to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The Guardian
The pledges most notably include one from China, the world’s leading emitter, which said it would cut emissions by 7-10% from its peak level by 2035.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, admitted this week that the international goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5C (2.7F) is at risk of “collapsing”, said that the upcoming UN climate talks in Brazil, known as Cop30, must produce “a credible global response plan to get us on track”.
“The science demands action, the law commands it,” Guterres said, in reference to a recent international court of justice ruling. “The economics compel it and people are calling for it.”
This stuttering global effort has been further imperiled by the actions of the US, the world’s largest historic emitter of carbon pollution.
On Tuesday, Trump gave a discursive speech littered with falsehoods to the UN, in which he dismissed accepted climate science and scolded leaders for shifting their countries to cleaner forms of energy.
Climate Change
NYC: During NYC’s Climate Week which coincides each year with the UN’s General Assembly; media company Axios held its own forum, inviting speakers to speak about climate ranging from Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert to Carlyle global head of corporate affairs Megan Starr.
Starr reported her work on the ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI), which collects sustainability data from thousands of private companies and measures it against the companies’ performance; “We’re actually seeing ESG performance levers really being tied to financial performance. And that’s kind of the holy grail that we’ve all been waiting for.”
For example, companies with top-level employee satisfaction scores see about half the turnover of other businesses and about 7% higher revenue growth.
That’s important because it’s expensive to recruit, train and onboard new employees.
Global: In related news 36% of large businesses in the U.S. and Europe have aligned their capital expenditures with sustainability goals despite a pullback in the U.S. and other countries from environmental protection efforts including combating climate change, per a Resilience survey of more than 500 decision makers focused on finance or sustainability at companies that generate annual revenue exceeding $700 million. CFO Dive
In addition. 95% percent of companies list discussion of environmental risks on their standing board agendas.
Risilience is a consulting firm focused on carbon emission reduction strategies and based in Cambridge, U.K.
Recycling
Global: Coca-Cola says 99% of its primary consumer packaging around the world was recyclable in 2024, according to an annual environmental update. Packaging Dive
That’s an increase from the stagnant 90% it reported for 2022 and 2023.
Coca-Cola reported that in 2024 it increased the rate of recycled content in its primary packaging globally to 28%. PET is its most-used substrate, and 18% of that was recycled PET.
Coca-Cola’s total weight of virgin plastic used increased to 2.94 million metric tons in 2024, after declining in 2023 to 2.83 million metric tons.
14% of total beverage volume was served in reusable packaging.
Marketing
This year’s list includes contracts that the organization says are currently active or were active for at least some part of 2024-25.
This year’s total is up from the 1,010 contracts that the group documented on its 2024 “F-List” report and it is also the highest total since the group issued its first F-List report five years ago.
A new feature of this year’s list is the inclusion of a metric—“Fossil Fuel Income Risk Exposure”—that estimates the percentage of a company’s revenue derived from fossil fuel contracts.
Topping that index is Edelman, with an estimated 5.64% of company revenue derived from fossil fuel contracts.
Europe: An IVES study How Context and National Identity Shape Perceptions of Canned Wine Consumers in Europe found judgments are strongly shaped by national identity. IVES
Consumers of canned wine in traditional markets (Italy, Switzerland) are viewed negatively, while in the UK consumers are seen more positively, highlighting a clash between tradition and innovation.
Diversity & Equity
UK: The Drinks Business published a discussion of women working in beer industry talking about sexism in the sector.
Why it continues to prevail and why it is everyone’s job to speak up about it.
UK: Decanter sponsors ‘Wine Professional of the Year’ at the 2025 BIH Spotlight Awards. Decanter
Established in 2020 by Lorraine Copes, BIH is a non-profit organization that promotes diversity and inclusion within the hospitality, food and drink sectors.
Its annual BIH Spotlight Awards have now become a pivotal platform for celebrating the talent of black, Asian and ethnic minority individuals and businesses across the UK.
Upcycling
Global: A report from Steinar Brandslet from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, outlined how a study that looked into how the residue left over from brewing could be used differently. The Drinks Business
Toktam Farjami, who is taking her PhD in food science at NTNU explained: “This is a valuable source of protein with excellent properties. More people are therefore interested in using spent grain as an alternative to animal protein.”
Farjami explained that there were many other different possibilities for the industry to use the raw material and highlighted how “the proteins in spent grain are water-repellent”.
Possible market uses include for making microcapsules.
The six-month pilot is backed by the furniture retailer’s U.S. division and has launched at five Ikea units in New Haven, Connecticut; Oak Creek, Wisconsin; Stoughton, Massachusetts; and Schaumburg and Bolingbrook in Illinois.
Vanguard Renewables will collect food waste — such as kitchen trimmings, leftovers from customer meals and expired culinary products — generated by Ikea restaurants at these locations and transform them into clean energy and products through an anaerobic digestion process.
Agrivoltaics
Penedès, Spain: Familia Torres has launched a pilot solar project at one of its vineyards in the as part of the Solarwine project. Harpers
The initiative has seen the company construct an agrivoltaic pergola installation which covers an area of 1000m2, with solar panels elevated 5 meters above the ground.
Located at the Mas Rabell vineyard in in Sant Martí Sarroca, the pilot seeks to assess the technical and economic viability of integrating agriculture and solar energy, evaluate its microclimate effects as well as analyze its impact on vineyard productivity and resilience in the context of global warming.