Last year a tree was felled in Northumberland in an act of environmental vandalism. There was national outcry and mourning, the police became involved, arrests were made, and environmental bodies leapt into action to try and save what remained.

Last week it was announced that a large multi-national company had destroyed thousands of trees, and apart from some shouting by a small number of environmental campaigners and a flurry of anger from the craft cider community, the air was relatively silent.

Why? Because in truth orchards are a somewhat forgotten jewel in our environmental crown, and on the whole cider drinkers have absolutely no idea what goes into their glass.

Heineken are really big, even for cider; they produce a third of the UK’s total production. Among others, they own the Bulmers, Strongbow, and Old Mout brands and over the past few decades they, along with some of the other members of the National Association of Cidermakers (who’ve stayed quiet on this issue), have been shaping how cider is marketed, produced and its flavour profile at the mass end of the spectrum.

I’ll caveat that there are other influences, but what that has led to is a cider industry flooded with flavoured versions, ubiquitous dilution and concentrate use and a consequential reduction in the need for heritage cider varieties. In centuries past cider was celebrated in all its guises. There were more rustic forms that quenched the thirsts of farm labourers and there were refined methods that adorned the tables of the high society. A lot of that history has been lost over time, but periodic revivals have tried to bring back the recognition that cider should receive as a drink in its own right.

There are two main issues that this massacre of trees really highlight in the cider world, firstly its juice content, and in the UK the law stipulates 35% as the minimum, which many of the mass producers utilise fully. So, the answer to this situation seems simple; if Heineken were to raise the percentage of juice in their cider they wouldn’t need to destroy hundreds of acres of apple trees. In fact, they could lead the way in the planting and conserving of many more trees. They could be champions of these bountiful biodiverse habitats and instrumental in preserving their history. As a company they profess to have environmental scruples but with the other hand chop down trees. Their Inches brand is said to be sustainable, with all apples sourced from Herefordshire, just next door to Monmouthshire where they uprooted and shredded 300 acres of orchards.

The second issue is the changes to cider’s flavour profile over the years and it’s linked to the above. If you want to make your mass-produced cider from concentrate then it will come from a certain number of countries. The challenge here is that only the UK and France grow cider varieties in any significant quantities, varieties prized for their tannins, with names such as Dabinett, Somerset Redstreak, Foxwhelp and Yarlington Mill. Varieties rich in history and flavour, prized in days past for making exquisite drinks. Almost everywhere else eating and culinary varieties are grown, which are much more acid-led. The result of this is that concentrate use has decreased the appetite for using tannin-rich fruit, the reason Heineken gives for its act of de-orchardisation.

It feels like we are at a precipice, a pivotal moment in cider’s story but also in our environmental legacy. Fortunately, we have a resurgence of craft cider and orchard preservation at a local level but the danger is that we dilute mass cider’s identity beyond all recognition of its historical value. We wouldn’t be the first country to do it, others have decimated their orchards (as Barry has researched on here) and lost their environmental bounty along with the huge contribution to their economy. As is often the case, it’s time to learn from history and not repeat its mistakes.

We have to hold these huge companies to account and stand up for spaces that don’t have their own voices. Whatever type or style of cider you like to drink, it can’t be ok to see wanton destruction of orchards and not speak up. The worst thing we can do is nothing.