I found this article on the website of Winebusiness. Very intersting opinion from Felicity Carter about the WHO.
WBM / April 2024 / Business & Technology
Who are the people behind the new anti-alcohol messaging from the World Health Organization?
by Felicity Carter
Mar 25, 2024
IN JANUARY 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) dropped a bombshell-they announced there was “no safe level”1 of alcohol consumption.
For the past five years, the WHO has been treating light alcohol consumption as a grave public health emergency. It seems a surprising priority for the world’s premier health organization-until a closer read of their policy documents reveals who they are working with: Temperance groups, which have now found a way to introduce abstinence policies into the global health arena.
How an EU Conflict Opened the Abstinence Door
In 2015, more than 20 public health organizations resigned2 from the EU’s Alcohol and Health Forum.
This committee was the place where legislators, alcohol representatives, and public health experts thrashed out how to reduce alcohol-related harms in the EU, which were significant:3 more than 120,000 premature deaths, and more than €125 billion ($135.4 billion) in crime, health, and social costs.
But the health organizations grew disgusted3 at the EU’s failure to develop an alcohol policy, seeing the Forum as fatally compromised by the alcohol industry.
“The forum has proved worse than useless, a free PR front for the industry,” Nina Renshaw, then secretary general of the European Public Health Alliance said at the time.
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Forum’s science group, was equally scathing, saying that the Commission had prioritized “alcohol industry interests over public health.”
The collapse of the Forum left a gaping hole in European alcohol policy. According to Ignacio Sanchez Recarte, that was when the WHO arrived, “with what I call that Trojan horse-they said alcohol is dangerous because it causes cancer.”
Sanchez Recarte is the director general of the Comite Europeen des Entreprises Vins4 (CEEV), the voice of Europe’s wine producers. Based in Brussels, “we try to defend the interests of European wine companies and wine traders on all the topics that may affect them,” he explained. “One of the working groups that is getting more and more important in the last year is the one trying to follow all the attacks.”
Those attacks are becoming relentless.
The Groups Advising the WHO
In 2018, the WHO launched the SAFER initiative5, a series of policy suggestions to reduce alcohol-related harms. As the WHO said openly at the time, SAFER had been created “in collaboration with international partners.”
A couple of these partners were non-controversial. They included the U.N. and Vital Strategies6, a New York not-for-profit agency known for its effective anti-tobacco work.
But some of the other named partners included I.O.G.T. (later Movendi International) the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance, and the NCD [Non-Communicable Diseases] Alliance.
These are all anti-alcohol groups-and their names began popping up in WHO documents with regularity.
Take the WHO’s “Reporting about alcohol: guide for journalists7,” published in April 2023 (see sidebar). The advisers behind the guide include some communications professionals-but others are affiliated with Movendi International8, the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance9, the NCD Alliance10, and Eurocare11.
The most significant of these anti-alcohol groups is Movendi International, headquartered in Stockholm.
Temperance Groups Turned Policymakers
Movendi International describes itself as “the largest independent global movement for development through alcohol prevention.”
Founded in upstate New York in 1851, it began as a temperance group that was heavily influenced by the Freemasons-complete with regalia and rituals. Originally called the Independent Order of Good Templars (I.O.G.T.), it spread rapidly across the U.S., Canada, and England. By 1900 there were groups in places as far-flung as Sri Lanka, Burma, Nigeria, and Panama. Everywhere the I.O.G.T. went, it inspired the founding of other temperance groups.
The efforts of such groups culminated, of course, during Prohibition, yet the unpopularity of Prohibition caused membership to fall, while the rise of Alcoholics Anonymous made such groups less relevant. After World War II, the I.O.G.T. turned to southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
It dispensed with the regalia in the 1970s and rebranded as Movendi International in 2020. Movendi is a portmanteau of ‘modus vivendi,’ meaning ‘way of living;’ it presents itself as a human rights, “heart-led” organization and says it is not against alcohol12. Instead, “…we advocate for every person’s right to choose to live free from alcohol.” Yet anyone who joins must agree13 that “I lead a lifestyle free from the use of alcohol and other drugs.”
Movendi’s worldview is simple: There are no artisans, small producers, or vignerons connected to land and history. There is only ‘Big Alcohol,’ which uses propaganda words like “moderation” and “craft” to conceal its true nature.
And Big Alcohol is an ally of Big Tobacco14—Movendi links alcohol to tobacco whenever it can.
But while Movendi and other groups are busy mischaracterizing the alcohol industry as one united group, they go out of their way to hide their own origins.
Take Movendi’s Swedish branch, the IOGT-NTO15, which presents itself as an anti-poverty organization-solving poverty by solving alcohol. It was formed in 1970 after the Swedish branch of I.O.G.T. merged with a Christian temperance group.
Ironically, the Swedish branch is partly funded by a lottery16; in 2018 they were taken to court17 and threatened with a fine of 3 million kroner (about $260,000) if they didn’t stop using deceptive practices. Specialists have long recognized that gambling is an addiction, making this a curious choice of funding for a temperance movement.
Other temperance groups use similar tactics. Take the Institute of Alcohol Studies18 in London, for example, which has a stellar line-up of doctors and scientists advising it, but which is funded by Alliance House19, a temperance group headed by religious figures.
Abstinence Organizations Are Having an Impact
In August 2023, the Canadian Centre for Substance Use and Abuse (CSSA) updated its alcohol guidelines20 , after a two-year review.
The previous guidelines set a standard weekly limit of 15 drinks a week for men and 10 for women. The new guidelines allow a maximum of two standard drinks a week. At three drinks, the guidelines say, the risk of cancer rises.
This was such a radical departure from the previous advice that 16 academics-including medical professionals, scientists, and addiction specialists-wrote an open letter in Le Devoir21, saying, “an approach that tends towards abstinence seems counterproductive in terms of prevention.”
Other Canadians took the time to dive into the CCSA data and discovered it didn’t match the conclusions.
First, “… the CCSA’s own technical analysis outlines potential health benefits from drinking,” wrote Chris Selley in The National Post22. “It found women and men alike were less likely to suffer ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, or intracerebral hemorrhage (the deadliest cause of stroke) while quaffing up to seven drinks a week. Even at 14 drinks a week, the analysis reckons that women’s risk of diabetes drops by 34%.”
Others investigated23 the Disclosures included in the guidelines document, which revealed that three of the guidelines’ authors-Drs. Tim Stockwell, Timothy Naimi and Adam Sherk-are affiliated with Movendi International.
In the case of Dr. Stockwell, an influential authority, his links to Movendi began in 2012.
A Bombshell Meta-analysis
On February, 24 2024, The New York Times published How Red Wine Lost Its Health Halo24. The article recounted how the popular 1991 60 Minutes segment about the French Paradox25 led Americans to believe that red wine was good for the heart.
The French Paradox, first identified in the 1980s, was the observation that although the French had diets high in saturated fats and cholesterol, they seemed to have lower rates of cardiovascular disease than Americans, possibly because of the wine they drank at meals. After the show aired, sales of red wine soared.
Reporting About Alcohol: A Guide for Journalists Shows WHO Goals
The World Health Organization created a guide for journalists to “support understanding and reporting on the harm to individuals, families and societies caused by alcohol consumption.” International media reference this guide when discussing the effects of alcohol on health and wellness. It is a telling guide for what is to come in the larger discussion about wine. Here are some of the points made, taken straight from the 45-page guide:
1. No amount of alcohol is safe to drink, yet around the globe, there is low awareness of the overall negative impact of alcohol consumption on health and safety.
2. More than half of adults around the world do not drink alcohol; their perspectives are under-represented in the media, maintaining a common misconception that alcohol consumption is an inevitable part of life.
3. Widely publicized claims that drinking a glass of red wine a day can protect against cardiovascular disease are wrong and divert attention from the many harms of alcohol use.
4. Alcohol consumption causes considerable harm to millions of people across the world, not just the heaviest users, which is why strong global action that protects the entire population is needed.
5. Despite being a low priority in many countries, reducing alcohol consumption improves economic development.
6. Categories of alcohol-related social harm include: violence, vandalism, public disorder, property damage, family problems: divorce/marital problems, child maltreatment, financial problems, work-related problems, work accidents, and social costs.
How Neo-Prohibitionists Came to Shape Alcohol Policy
Throughout the 1990s, the article went on, researchers believed that wine had a cardiovascular protective effect. The Times article didn’t use the famous term ‘J-curve’26, but what the author was referring to was the observation that light-to-moderate drinking is associated with decreased mortality rates from all causes.
The J-curve was first observed by Professor Raymond Pearl, a biologist at John Hopkins, who noted that people who drank light amounts of alcohol had a lower risk of death from all causes than those who abstained. Light drinking also seemed to protect the heart.
Alcohol is dose-dependent-at low levels, mortality declines. As people drink more, the harms rise dramatically. When plotted graphically, this effect looks like a hockey stick or J, hence the name J-curve.
To prove that wine in moderation is unhealthy, researchers must either reject the J-curve, or claim it doesn’t matter, because what drinkers gain in cardiovascular effects, they will lose by raising their cancer risk.
In 2001, according to the same Times article, a skeptical researcher persuaded Dr. Stockwell and other scientists to re-examine the evidence for the health benefits of moderate drinking. Their 2006 meta-analysis27—a study that combines all previous studies and reviews them-contradicted the prevailing wisdom about the health benefits of moderate drinking, but failed to make an impact.
But in 2023, Drs. Stockwell and Naimi, plus another researcher28, did another meta-analysis, which also claimed to debunk the J-curve.
Coming on the heels of the “no safe level” pronouncement, it’s no surprise that this time their work generated huge interest-including in that New York Times article, which quoted Dr. Stockwell extensively.
“No amount of alcohol is safe29, the WHO and other health agencies have said,” the writer went on, “regardless of whether you’re drinking wine, beer or liquor.”
Some of the doctors who commented on the paper weren’t so convinced28 . Aldo Badiani, Professor of Pharmacology at Sapienza University of Rome criticized the study for not taking drinking patterns into account. Cardiologist Dr. Eric Roehm said the authors had used “an overly broad definition of moderate alcohol intake,” and went on to criticize their conclusions.
The J-curve is supported by a vast body of scientific literature, including a major meta-analysis37 published in 2023. Those who want to challenge its existense will need to do a randomized control trial which, in the end, is unlikely to happen. (For more on the difficulties in creating and conducting such a trial, see “The Fight Over Moderate Drinking: Why Studies on Effects are Unlikely to Happen“.)
The Message is About to Get Louder
In 2022, GiveWell, a non-profit, awarded a $15 million grant30 to New York agency Vital Strategies and its partners, including the WHO, Movendi International, and other anti-alcohol NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations). The partners have since launched an initiative called RESET31 to lobby for increased alcohol taxes and to crack down on alcohol availability and marketing. The “no safe level” message is set to spread.
It’s already had an impact; In August 2023, Gallup revealed32 that 39% of Americans believe that even moderate drinking is bad for their health.
The CEEV’s Sanchez Recarte says the European wine industry saw this coming years ago and founded Wine in Moderation33 in 2008 as a response to the threat of anti-alcohol legislation. Its goal is to promote modest consumption.
Wine in Moderation is exactly the kind of organization that Movendi sees as a front14 , created to help the alcohol industry shield itself. Sanchez Recarte actually agrees. “Yes, but in a good sense,” he says. “If you don’t behave well, you will be destroyed by legislation. You try to impose a code of conduct on yourself.”
He says that the CEEV supports the EU’s efforts to reduce alcohol harms. “The problem,” he says, “is that there has been a constant lobby action by others to shift from ‘let’s find the best actions to fight alcohol abuse’ to ‘let’s move into a policy discussion about how to eliminate alcohol consumption.'”
It’s accelerated because, he says, the anti-alcohol NGOs are now coordinating with one another. “They say they are fighting the problems of alcohol, but they are not implementing anything. They’re just lobbyists with public money.”
But “no safe level” is a simple message to deliver and to understand, while the science is complex. “Policymakers can’t spend three days listening to scientists,” he said.
After WineBusiness Monthly spoke to Sanchez Recarte, he sent over the leaflets the CEEV is using to communicate about wine and health. They’re dense with references, hedged with qualifications, as per normal scientific practice-and no match for the “no safe level” message.
Sanchez Recarte believes the way forward is to talk about wine as an integral part of the Mediterranean diet, acknowledged as the world’s healthiest34.
He also thinks it’s important to talk about wine as an artisanal product from a particular time and place, made by specific people. “This brings the idea of culture,” he said. “If you look at the strategies of the NGOs, they are talking about the ‘alcohol industry,’ which is something tedious.”
But maybe the real question that should be asked is why abstinence groups are being allowed to drive global health policy. It’s not just Canada that has changed its drinking guidelines-this year, Japan also introduced its first-ever alcohol recommendations, citing WHO guidelines35. The U.S. is now in the process of updating its dietary guidelines, which will include recommendations on alcohol consumption.
“Temperance organizations’ increasing sway on public health decisions raises important questions about how public policy should be made,” as David Clement from Canada’s Consumer Choice Center wrote in The Financial Post36. “Would it be appropriate fora group like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to craft government policy on meat consumption?” Appropriate or not, the reality is that Movendi International has survived for more than 170 years and isn’t going anywhere. Given the general trend towards health and wellness that’s driving the market, it appears they have finally found the right approach, at the right time. WBM
Editor’s note: A quote from Ignacio Sanchez Recarte regarding wine remaining distinct from “Big Alcohol” has been removed. He clarified that he believes wine needs to avoid being seen as a “Big Alcohol”. He added that the wine sector does collaborate with other sectors when appropriate.
References:
1. World Health Organization News Release. (2023) “No Level of Alcohol Consumption is Safe for Our Health.” World Health Organization, www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health.
2. Wise, J. (2015;350:h3040) “Health Bodies Resign from “Charade” of EU Alcohol Forum.” BMJ, www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h3040.
3. “European Alcohol and Health Forum: NGO Resignation Briefing Document.” EAHF Resignation Briefing, www.ias .org.uk/uploads/pdf/EAHF_resignation_briefing.pdf.
4. Comite EuropeEn Des Entreprises Vins, www.ceev.eu.
5. ” The SAFER Initiative -A World Free from Alcohol Related Harm.” World Health Organization, www.who.int/initiatives/SAFER.
6. Vital Strategies, www.vitalstrategies.org.
7. World Health Organization. (2023) “Reporting About Alcohol: A Guide for Journalists.” World Health Organization, www.who.int/publications/i/item/978924007 1490.
8. Movendi International, movendi.ngo.
9. Global Alcohol Policy Alliance, globalgapa.org.
10. NCD Alliance, ncdalliance.org.
11. Eurocare -European Alcohol Policy Alliance, www.eurocare.org.
12. “FAQS.” Movendi.Ngo, movendi.ngo/who-we-are/the-movendi-way/faqs.
13. “Membership Application Form.” Movendi.Ngo, movendi.ngo/take-action/join-us/membership-application-form.
14. Dunnbier, M. (9 Mar. 2021) “Big Tobacco’s Strategic Ally Interferes in WHO Alcohol Policy Consultation.” Movendi.Ngo, movendi.ngo/blog/2021/03/09/big-tobaccosstrategic-ally-interferes-in-who-alcohol-policy-consultation.
15. ” The IOGT-NTO Movement Contributes to Reduced Poverty in the World.” Www. Iogtntororelsen.Se, www.iogtntororelsen.se/en/om-oss.
16. “IOGT-NTO RAMBUDGET 2022-2023.” www.iogtse.cdn.triggerfish.cloud/uploads/2021/07/arende-43-b-fs-reviderade-frslag-nr-05-b-rambudget-2022-2023.pdf.
17. Lindstedt, M. (3 Jan. 2018) “LottfoRsaLjning Stoppas: “Lurat Konsumenterna”.” E xpressen, www.expressen.se/ekonomi/konsument/miljonlotteriets-smutsiga-forsaljning-stoppas-av-domstol.
18. “Institute of Alcohol Studies.” www.ias.org.uk.
19. “Alliance House and the Temperance Movement.” www.alliancehousefoundation.org.uk/history.
20. “Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health.” Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. www.ccsa.ca/canadas-guidance-alcohol-and-health.
21. Bertrand, K. (2022) “Des Conclusions Demesurees Pour la Consommation d’Alcool a Faible Risque.” Le Devoir. www.ledevoir.com/opinion/idees/759449/idees-desconclusions-demesurees-pour-la-consommation-d-alcool-a-faible-risque .
22. Selley, C. (2023) “Chris Selley: A Scorching New Critique of Canada’s ‘Pseudoscientific’ Alcohol Guidelines.” National Post. nationalpost.com/opinion/critique-ofcanadas-alcohol-guidelines.
23. Wirtz, B. & Clement, D. (2023) “Opinion: Unmasking the Fun Police.” The Hub. thehub.ca/2023-09-11/opinion-unmasking-the-fun-police.
24. Callahan, A. (17 Feb. 2024) “How Red Wine Lost Its Health Halo.” The New York Times , www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/well/eat/red-wine-heart-health.html.
25. ” The French Paradox: How Rich Food and Wine Could Help You Stay Healthy | 60 Minutes Australia.” YouTube, uploaded by 60 Minutes Australia, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QyQmL-mlV0.
26. Tsai, MK ., Gao, W. & Wen, CP. (2023) ” The Relationship Between Alcohol Consumption and Health: J-shaped or Less is More?. BMC Med 21, 228, https://doi. org/10.1186/s12916-023-02911-w
27. Filmore Middleton, K, Kerr C. W, Stockwell, T, Chikritzhs, T, Bostrom, A. “Moderate Alcohol Use and Reduced Mortality Risk : Systematic Error in Prospective Studies.” Addiction Research & Theory, vol. 14, no. 2, 2006, pp. 101-132, https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1080/16066350500497983.
28. Zhao J, Stockwell T, Naimi T, Churchill S, Clay J, Sherk A. “Association Between Daily Alcohol Intake and Risk of All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-analyses.” JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(3):e236185. doi:10.1001/ jamanetworkopen.2023.6185.
29. Smith, Dana G. (13 Jan. 2023) “Even a Little Alcohol Can Harm Your Health.” The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2023/01/13/well/mind/alcohol-health-effects.html.
30. “New Initiative Launches To Address Neglected Global Health Crisis of Alcohol Harms.” Vital Strategies, 1 Nov. 2022, www.vitalstrategies.org/new-initiativelaunches-to-address-neglected-global-health-crisis-of-alcohol-harms.
31. “Alcohol Policy.” Vital Strategies, www.vitalstrategies.org/programs/alcohol-policy.
32. Younis, M. & Evans, Mary C. (17 Aug. 2023) “More Americans View Moderate Drinking As Unhealthy.” Gallup, news.gallup.com/poll/509588/americans-viewmoderate-drinking-unhealthy.aspx.
33. ” Wine in Moderation.” www.wineinmoderation.eu.
34. LaMotte, S. (7 Jan. 2023) “Best Diet for 2023 Is the Science-backed Mediterranean Style of Eating.” CNN Health, edition.cnn.com/2023/01/03/health/mediterraneandiet-2023-best-diet-wellness/index.html.
35. The Mainichi. (23 Nov. 2023) “40 Grams of Alcohol per Day Raise Lifestyle Disease Risk among Men: Japan Ministry Panel.” The Mainichi, mainichi.jp/english/articles/20231123/p2a/00m/0li/020000c.
36. Clement, D. (18 May. 2023) “Opinion: Anti-alcohol Extremists Should Not Determine Alcohol Policy.” Financial Post, financialpost.com/opinion/opinion-antialcohol-extremists-should-not-determine-alcohol-policy.
37. Tsai, MK ., Gao, W. & Wen, CP. The relationship between alcohol consumption and health: J-shaped or less is more?. BMC Med 21, 228 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02911-w
Felicity Carter
Based in Europe, Felicity Carter is a freelance reporter as well as editorial director of Areni Global, the fine wine think tank headquartered in London. Previously, she was founding executive editor of The Drop at Pix, editorial consultant for Liv-ex, and Editor in Chief of Meininger ‘s Wine Business International. Her work has appeared in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers in Australia, and in The Guardian USA, among many others.
