AIM CONFERENCE AT VINEXPO
 
Alcohol in Moderation (AIM), which is a small British lobby group working
"to promote the sensible and responsible consumption of alcohol", is
holding a conference at VINEXPO in Bordeaux on the morning of Tuesday 17th
June, under the title, "Is More Better? what moderation really means."
        As the title suggests, the conference will be questioning the World
Health Organisation message that "Less is Better", with six short speeches
from a mixed group of journalists and academics, followed by an open
debate.
        The first three speakers will deal with medical matters. The wine
writer Jancis Robinson will cover the reception and misreporting by the
media of medical research into the effects of alcohol. Professor Diederick
Grobbee will look at whether wine, beer or spirits best protects against a
future heart attack. Dr Tom Stuttaford, the medical correspondent of the
London Times, will investigate why governments have been so slow to accept
the benefits of moderate drinking when issuing guidelines for safe limits
of alcohol consumption.
        The other three speakers will deal with social and cultural
aspects. Professor Jacques Weill will dismantle the Ledermann theory that
forms the basis of official policies that seek to persuade moderate
drinkers to reduce their consumption. Andrew Barr, author of Drink: an
informal social history (of which an American edition is forthcoming), will
show how efforts to implement the control theory that follows from the
Ledermann theory have all too often achieved the opposite of their ends.
Finally, Professor Dwight Heath will explain how Third World cultures have
long developed a "folk wisdom" about the social and psychological benefits
of drinking that is only now being "discovered" scientifically by Western
researchers.
        In the debate that follows the speeches, a panel comprising the
speakers and some industry figures, such as Peter Mitchell of Guinness and
Steve Kauffman of the Century Council, will answer questions from the
floor.
        The conference is open to anyone who wants to attend. Copies of the
speeches will also be available afterwards. For further information please
contact me at [log in to unmask] or, if that does not work
(Compuserve having been pretty inefficient about personalising my address),
at my numerical address of [log in to unmask]
 
Andrew Barr.