The Impacts of the UK Wine Industry on People, Place and Climate

Climate change has moved the boundary at which viniviticulture is possible to above 49.9N+ degrees above latitude, in the UK this has made commercial wine production both possible and profitable. This has triggered a movement in land-use, as vineyards increasingly replace other arable land in England and Wales; a movement of people, as wealthy business professionals return to the land to establish vineyards; and a movement on menus, as English and Welsh wine is stocked at establishments from Weatherspoon’s to The Fat Duck. Concurrently, climate change is severely disrupting agricultural production and livelihoods, prompting passionate calls for a far reaching transformation of the food systems. Agroecology is one potential route to transformation, offering a pathway to an environmental sustainable and social just food system. This paper will explore how the UK wine industry and agroecology have respectively moved from positions of ridicule into a spaces where they are publicly respected. Critically, it will identify if transformative agroecological thinking and practice holds and place in the UK wine industry. This will contribute to the growing body of work that is examining how agroecology appears in practice and what it means in different contexts.