Ten million litres or 2.6 million gallons? We are not trying to start a dispute about units of measurement, but simply making the point that that amount of liquid would fill the equivalent of four Olympic swimming pools. On a national scale, if we had to ask every “beer-drinking” citizen to jump in and practise their breaststroke, that quadruple pool might well appear tiny.
Should we be overly worried by this? If the author of these lines is steeped in a clear lack of empathy (or bias), that is because the real worry lies less in the possibility of seeing millions of litres of flat, warm beer flow into the gutter and more in watching the impending end of the wine-producing industry, widely accepted as one of the most prestigious jewels in the French crown, which has already begun to slide into a long and perhaps irreversible decline due to changing consumer habits.
