It will be told to you in twenty years: Pesticides, wine, and sealed lips | Marie-Lys Bibeyran

“Is it related to vineyard products?”

October 2009. Listrac-Médoc. Denis dies from a rare cancer, without ever getting an answer to his question.

Are the pesticides he applied for over twenty years on the Médoc vineyard that employed him responsible for the ordeal experienced by Denis?

In the heart of this sea of vineyards located 35 km north of Bordeaux, with wines of worldwide renown, his sister Marie-Lys, transformed into a Whistleblower, sets out to find the answer.

What follows are eleven years of a relentless battle against pesticides and the established wine industry, in a territory where everything leads back to viticulture. Family rifts, professional and social destruction intertwine in a daily life with a thriller-like atmosphere.

But for what? At what cost?

Marie-Lys Bibeyran was born into a family of vineyard workers in Médoc. She first tried to escape a predetermined destiny. But after 5 years of studying law, her roots caught up with her. For twenty years, she walked the rows of vines in Médoc. She could have settled for this life, but that was without considering her inability to resign when her brother Denis died in 2009. Everything in viticulture incites her, especially the pesticides and those who use or apply them. A whistleblower on these chemicals and their health effects, she tells her story.

Foreword by Martin Boudot, host and producer of the Green Warrior series.