Pulse Check: Living Soils 2026

InnovationSustainabilityPulse Check: Living Soils 2026ByLouise Schiavone,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I focus on the environment, its preservation, and the living things found in it.Follow AuthorJun 14, 2026, 08:35am EDTVineyard in Provence near CassisgettySummer in Provence, a movable feast of rosés and chilled cocktails, icy drinks and al fresco meals, calls to mind the bounty of lush growing months everywhere, but especially in the fabled south of France. Many a wine aficionado contemplates how great it would be to escape to your own vineyard and live off the land. Here, in Arles, on the cusp of official Summer, the third World Living Soils Forum revealed something else: tending the land, and vineyards in particular, with optimum natural practices, is just as rough and tumble a business as the one you might be trying to escape. France is the world's first producer of rose and Provence is the first France's producing region with 40% of the country production, according to the Provence wine interprofessional council (CIVP). AFP PHOTO/GERARD JULIENAFP via Getty ImagesMany of the five hundred participants and industry sponsors say they are wrestling every day with the intention to “do the right thing” by the famous triple bottom line – people, profit, and planet. But the path is rarely obvious and there is almost never enough money.Climate is unpredictable, international trade is equally so, sales are down, multiple global conflicts remain unresolved, and money, both public and private, is tight. Even before this, rising inflation and market impacts have been significant. “We see things have changed and today the way people consume wine, particularly in the south of Europe - in France, Italy and Spain - is very different from what it was some decades ago,” Moët Hennessy CEO Jean-Jacques Guiony told me. JMöet Hennessy CEO Jean-Jacques Guiony Photo by Martin BUREAU / AFP) (Photo by MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Get...