Stock-Picking Wisdom Could Save a Quarter of the World’s Vineyards
It’s been assumed that diversification works for agriculture as it does for investment portfolios. A new study puts that to the test.
Winery Concha y Toro SA uses advanced biochemistry to create climate change-resistant grapes.
Photographer: Tamara Merino/BloombergWine and agriculture researchers studying the effects of climate change in vineyards have come to the same conclusion as decades of investors: diversify.
Scientists from some of the premier academic institutions in Europe and the U.S. found that diversifying grape varieties could reduce the losses to wine-growing regions by half should global average temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius. For years crop diversification has been part of the received wisdom on agriculture and climate change, but the authors of the study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, argue theirs is one of the first to quantify just how much it can help.