“NO TO TERRORISTIC LABELS, YES TO EDUCATION ON CONSCIOUS CONSUMPTION”: THE APPEAL TO PREMIER ROMANO PRODI BY PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN WINE UNION (UIV), ANDREA SARTORI, WHO EXPLAINS THAT “IT IS INCORRECT TO DRAG WINE INTO THE VORTEX OF DRUGS”

Yet again the wine sector has been called to join in a united front against a proposed law that, as has been announced by the Minister of Social Solidarity, Paolo Ferrero, intends to prohibit the advertising of alcoholic beverages and to add terroristic health warnings to bottle labels.

“In Italy” – confirmed Andrea Sartori, president of the Italian Confederation of Grapes and Wine (The Italian Wine Union) – “schizophrenic legislation rules. A week ago a national alcohol and health plan was announced in which the collaboration of sector enterprises was requested, a commendable act, but at the same time another minister of the same government launched a proposal that requested the exact opposite.
Wine producers have never hidden, rather, they have always been involved in a significant way in regards to information on the correct use of beverages, giving equal importance to the effects on health of moderate consumption as well as the risks of abusive consumption. We are sorry to have to contest, yet again, the fact that some government exponents think that it is possible to resolve a delicate problem like that of alcoholism by “hiding” the product from sight or by attaching terrorizing messages to labels. Even if the mediatic return of such initiatives is notable, on a practical level, the effects of these measures could be devastating, especially in regards to those we most want to protect, the young”.

And it is for this reason that Andrea Sartori has directed the appeal by the entrepreneurial wine sector directly to the leader of Italy, Romano Prodi. “I am expressing” – read the telegram sent by the president of the Italian Wine Union (UIV) to the president of the Italian Republic – “our strong preoccupations about the new wave of prohibitionism that risks overwhelming a product of our tradition that is capable of generating wealth for the Italian economy and prestige throughout the world. .

The entrepreneurs of this sector are aware of the evils of alcoholism and applaud the initiatives that are aimed at promoting a more conscious consumption, but it cannot remain passive in regards to decisions and positions by the political world that are so exasperated and incorrect that they drag wine into the vortex of drugs, demonizing its consumption. If the consumer must know the risks of abuse, it is his right to also know of the many advantages in terms of health with that of a correct consumption.
The seriousness of this situation has forced me to solicit your intervention so that our wine can continue to reap the success that it merits”.