Here is a letter we recently recieved from a concerned citezen in Germany:

Your Problem is a problem in germany too. Here many small vineyards still have to be handpicked because they are grown in places too steep to use harvesters.
These have to be given up because they cannot compete with the cheap wines harverstet by machines in south africa (and other countries too of course).

An article recently appeared on news24.com discussing how pioneering viticulturalist Johnathan Grieve uses ducks, wasps and beetles instead of chemical pestisides on his farm Avondale.

He said: "I find that making use of these natural predators works much more effectively, and is a lot cheaper.He has also cut back on fertilisers by planting legumes and cereals as "cover crops" among the vines to provide natural compost and bind nitrogen from the air into the soil. The plants also suppress weeds and keep the soil moist.

Read the article here

A database of bonafide ecologically sound, sustainable and organic businesses and wine estates is currently being created. As soon as this is completed the relevant information will be supplied on this site as well as links to the entire database. Many thanks are due to Glen for this research. Due to lack of funding we are unable to claim that these are the only ecologically sound wines in South Africa.

The South African Wine Initiative is thrilled to be able to provide you the consumer with the choice to only buy approved wine! PLEASE ONLY purchase and consume these approved wines.

Since the creation of The South African Wine Initiative the extent of the problem of Mechanical Harvesters has become more intense. The primary aim of this site is to expose the horror of the social conditions of the Western Cape's Grape-pickers, combined with the killing of an indeterminate number of protected chameleons and other fauna.

However, it seems that this problem exists as a far greater global issue than we previously imagined. Activists in Australia, France and California have contacted us with information concerning the large number of insects, reptiles, animals and bird eggs that are killed through the process of mechanically harvesting grapes.

Eleven years after South Africa became a democracy we find ourselves facing the same race based inequalities that have existed for centuries. How come the Government is still more concerned with making money than helping uplift the lives of those living in poverty? Mechanical Harvesters are only used because they cut costs. How about the cost of human life?