Vinitaly, and the battle against simplistic food narratives – Verona
I joined an event in Verona, in the broader setting of Vinitaly, to present Luigi Chiarello’s book Nel nome del pane. It was a valuable opportunity to reflect on food security, wine, nutrition, and the dangers of increasingly simplistic narratives around food and public health.
Vinitaly, and the battle against simplistic food narratives
A beautiful day in splendid Verona offered the perfect setting to present Luigi Chiarello’s book Nel nome del pane in the wider context of Vinitaly, one of the world’s leading events dedicated to wine and its culture.
The discussion went well beyond the presentation of a book. It became an opportunity to reflect on some of the most urgent and controversial issues shaping today’s food debate: food security, the cultural and economic value of wine, the rise of warning-label approaches, and the importance of defending a balanced, science-based understanding of nutrition.
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At a time when global instability is forcing governments and societies to think more seriously about food security, events like Vinitaly remind us that food and wine are not marginal issues. They are part of productive capacity, territorial identity, supply-chain resilience, and social life. To weaken these sectors through ideological simplifications would be a serious mistake.
This is why the growing push for warning labels on wine, beer and alcoholic beverages deserves critical scrutiny.
Public health must be protected, of course. But it should be advanced through education, moderation, responsibility, and better understanding, not through crude tools that stigmatize products, alarm consumers, and ignore context, culture, and actual patterns of consumption.
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The same applies to nutrition more broadly. Too often, the public debate forgets the value of nutrient-dense foods, including animal proteins, which have played a central role in human development and continue to provide essential nutritional benefits within a balanced lifestyle.
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In Verona, this conversation felt especially timely. What we need is more science and less ideology, more balance and less moralization, more freedom of choice and less paternalism. That is the direction public debate should take if we want healthier citizens, stronger supply chains, and a more mature relationship with food.
