Ep. 1199 Science & Prejudice, Implications On Viticulture | wine2wine Business Forum 2021

Welcome to Episode 1199; Science and prejudice- implications on viticulture, with Attilio Scienza + Alessio Planeta as moderator

Welcome to Wine2Wine Business Forum 2021 Series. The sessions are recorded and uploaded on Italian Wine Podcast. wine2wine is an international wine business forum, held annually in Verona Italy since 2014. The event is a key reference point for wine producers and a diverse variety of wine professionals eager to develop and grow their wine business worldwide.

About this Session

We like to imagine science free from discrimination, impartial, neutral. In fact, like any other human activity, it never operates in a political vacuum: even science has its prejudices. The eugenics born in the nineteenth century, which postulates the existence of “superior races” and “inferior races” and which even inspires the policy of euthanasia of the “less fit” promoted by Nazism, is an eloquent example of this. Similarly, the hostility towards American vines is not the result of scientific findings based on objective evidence, but of deductions from a time when the wine of these vines was a witness of poverty and hunger. The session will explore the common origin of American species and European vine, which is currently very divisive in the scientific community. Reflecting on the elements supporting the main positions in this regard, Prof. Scienza will show how, from a scientific point of view, the ostracism towards the vines created by the crossbreeding of American and European varieties is not only not justified, but also prevents the resolution of important problems linked to wine production

About the Speaker

Attilio Scienza is a full professor at the University of Milan where he teaches courses on genetic improvements to the vine in the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences; he also teaches Viticulture in the Master’s program of the University of Turin in Asti. He has been the lead for many national research projects in the field of physiology, agricultural techniques, and vine genetics.

About the Moderator:

Alessio Planeta: after completing his Masters in agriculture Alessio Planeta spent the best years of his youth studying the history of Sicily and its viticulture. He became a sort of wine-nerd, in fact he spent his so-called holidays working in France, Piemonte, California, and Australia, instead of in Ibiza or Saint-Tropez.

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