GRAPE GROWING
Piwi varieties: The past and future of global wine growing In a thesis on an unpublished topic, the Italian-Brazilian historian Gil Karlos Ferri, PhD, presents the environmental history of vine genetic improvement and the future prospects of sustainability for the global wine sector. Although the topic of viticulture and genetic improvement is recurrent in several works produced by oenologists and agronomists, in the historical field there is still a lack of solid research on the subject. Or rather, it did not exist. Recently, the environmental historian Gil Karlos Ferri, PhD, defended his doctoral thesis entitled “PIWI varieties: viticulture in the Santa Catarina plateau (Brazil) and research on the genetic improvement of the vine from the perspective of global environmental history”, a research that articulates in a pioneering way the human sciences and natural sciences in the field of viticulture, highlighting the work for its academic originality and scientific relevance. The general objective of the thesis was to investigate the historical and socio-environmental process of viticulture in the Santa Catarina plateau and the research on vine genetic improvement developed by researchers from the Santa Catarina Agricultural Research and Rural Extension Company (EPAGRI) and the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) with the collaboration of the Instituto Agrario di San Michele all'Adige (Edmund Mach Foundation – FEM, Italy) and the Institute for Genetic Improvement of Vine Geilweilerhof (Julius Kühn Institute – JKI, Germany). Among the various sources used, the following stand out: official documents, technical publications, oral history interviews and photographs. The thesis presents the fact that the cultivation of Vitis vinifera in the edaphoclimatic conditions of Santa Catarina has represented an economically costly and environmentally damaging challenge, due to the need for phytosanitary treatments to combat fungal diseases. In the search for solutions to this problem, Brazilian and foreign researchers are collaborating in an international project for the genetic improvement of vines and the development of PIWI-resistant varieties (PIlzWIderstandsfähig = fungi-resistant). In this sense, the thesis aimed to present a historical narrative with data and arguments that could make the trajectory of winemaking and its developments with genetic improvement research understandable, based on current
Photo: Samuele Scudiero
Gil Karlos Ferri, PhD, in front of the Palace of Research and Knowledge, Edmund Mach Foundation, Trento, Italy discussions on sustainability, the reduction of pesticide use and the mitigation of the effects of climate change through the potential that PIWI-resistant varieties represent for a more responsible winemaking towards society and the environment in Santa Catarina and globally. Another factor that deserves to be highlighted is the interdisciplinarity with which the thesis was developed. The research was supervised by Professor Dr Eunice Sueli Nodari, national reference in Environmental History and international coordinator of the research network in Viticulture, and co-supervised by Professor Dr Rubens Onofre Nodari, of the Postgraduate Program in Plant Genetic Resources (PPGRGV/UFSC), demonstrating that the theme crosses different and complementary areas, composing a more inclusive historical narrative in its sources and methods. The fellowship period (PDSE/CAPES, 2023/2024), under the supervision of Dr Marco Stefanini at the Edmund Mach Foundation (FEM) in San Michele all’Adige, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy, was fundamental for understanding the research on genetic improvement in the global scenario. Finally, the thesis presents as results the dynamism in the search for more sustainable solutions for the production of wines and sparkling wines, as in the case of the current PIWI resistant varieties. In summary, the historical information collected in this thesis can serve as a reference base for work in other fields of knowledge, such as agronomy and oenology, and to provide information to winemakers, wine professionals, sommeliers, wine tourists and other wine enthusiasts. Currently, Professor Ferri continues to conduct research on Italian-Brazilian studies, viticulture and Global Environmental History.
THE COMPLETE THESIS, OF 400 PAGES, IS ACCESSIBLE : https://repositorio.ufsc.br/123456789/264150 43
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