Prize-giving of the winners of the 39th edition of the Masi Prize: Ilaria Capua, Reinhold Messner and Andrea Rigoni - Civiltà Veneta -, Riedel Glass - Civiltà del Vino - and Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees - Grosso d’Oro Veneziano.
The stimulating debate streamed and moderated by the Radio 24 journalist Alessandro Milan, connected from the Masi cellars in Valpolicella, in the presence of Isabella Bossi Fedrigotti, Sandro Boscaini and Marco Vigevani - respectively the Chairman, Deputy Chair and Secretary of the Foundation - was watched by thousands of users in Italy and abroad, thereby confirming the interest shown in the prestigious prize-winners and the topic interpreted by them, together with the Masi Foundation: sustainability.
This year, the recognition not only constituted an opportunity for celebration in the hallmark of tradition and culture, but also offered up the chance of reflecting properly on a matter that has become particularly significant and meaningful during the pandemic emergency. A unanimous appeal emerged for everyone to accept responsibility and adopt a less selfish approach.
Ilaria Capua: “This experience has generated energy. We cannot go back to where we were before the pandemic; we need to change things and strive towards sustainability. COVID has given us an advantage: some thing we would have addressed further on, are now better being dealt with immediately to have the world start up again in a sustainable manner”.
Reinhold Messner: “The virus is also a natural fact; nature is creative and always wins. If we are not careful to respect the rules and nature, we are the ones who will lose. We are weak, but we are many and we are responsible for the generations to come. The environment is a garden through which we travel and which we need to leave in order”.
Andrea Rigoni: “The real revolution will be making sustainability the new economic model, abandoning a system that calls for the production of more and more and at ever lower prices. I believe that it will be the confirmation that the route we have been travelling in Rigoni for almost a hundred years, is the right one”.
Filippo Grandi: “This is the most urgent problem we have ever faced and I hope it teaches us that global challenges can only be faced together, with less selfishness. The answer lies in sustainability. Promoting a sustainable development model also serves to address and (we hope) solve the underlying causes of the crises that force millions of people to flee their homes and often their countries”.
Maximilian Riedel: “Wine brings us all together, the whole world produces wine, it is good for the territory and brings people together. At this point of time, it is difficult to share it in a social setting, but we can take it home and consume it responsibly. A good glass of wine can give the feeling of being reconnected with the rest of the world”.
Isabella Bossi Fedrigotti:
“The Masi Foundation has chosen this topic because the Prize has always had sustainability-related values in its very DNA; perhaps not as obviously and visibly as today but, instinctively, this approach was already present, which today has become an essential requirement”.
Sandro Boscaini: “Sustainability is the end and the means, a way of living one’s life, work, the environmental and the community. It is the way the human being should always have acted and operated. There have been leaps forward and, in particular in the last few years in social, economic and environmental aspects. We now need to head once again towards a nature that means “sustainability”. It is a recently-coined term but an ancient way of living in harmony with nature and our peers”.
The Chairman of the Region of Veneto Luca Zaia expressed his appreciation of the values expressed by the Masi Prize edition:
“An appointment that has become a fixed point in the cultural scene of our region, combining the quality of the agricultural world, to which our roots are firmly anchored, with culture. ‘Knowledge cannot be harmed; time does not erase it; nothing can reduce it’, Seneca said and to be quite honest, I agree entirely with these words, when I think of our rural society that has acquired knowledge over the centuries that has allowed it to reach important milestones, not forgetting the relationship with the land and the values it can convey”.
A video recording of the event is available from www.premiomasi.com , on the Facebook page @MasiWines and on the YouTube page @MasiWines
