Teaching wine culture in schools has returned to Parliament with Brunetta’s bill

The subject of teaching the culture of wine in schools to raise awareness among young people regarding what viniculture represents for Italy, as well as being a form of preventive education towards conscious alcohol consumption has been talked about for quite a long time. The bill that was presented some time ago has been proposed once again in Parliament. In 2016, Senator Dario Stefàno had drafted the bill and by so doing started the procedure, which is today starting up once again, since the Culture and Agriculture Commissions is now working on the draft of bill number C. 1533, initially signed by Renato Brunetta, who is a member of Parliament and a former minister (of the Forza Italia political party). Moreover, Brunetta is a small wine producer and is at the head of the Capizucchi winery, which is located on the outskirts of Rome.
The project, which is also looking beyond just schools, is titled, “Instituting teaching the history and the culture of Italian wine and food as subjects of civic education, including other themes to promote the food and wine sector”. Because as it is stated in Article 1, “teaching the history and culture of Italian wine and food as a subject of civic education”, they would like to see the project start at the beginning of the school year 2019/2020 in the elementary and secondary schools (offering the opportunity to make it a specialized course in secondary schools such as the agrarian, agro-food and agro-industrial as well as professional institutes). They would similarly provide topics ranging from wine history and mythology to the influences on culture and the biodiversity in the Euro-Mediterranean area, the economy and the geography of Italian wine, the history of quality Italian food and conscious consumption, just to name a few. The articles outlined in the bill also include, among other things, a Day of Italian food and wine excellence, establishing a coordination center of Italian food and wine excellence, a quality food and wine commission, assigning funds for viniculture research, as well as spaces reserved for spreading knowledge about the Italian food and wine heritage on public radio and television networks.
These are definitely very ambitious goals, since this bill is being proposed once again and therefore, hopefully, this time it will finally arrive at a concrete conclusion.