I was interested (and I must admit a bit surprised) to read recently that Italy is the European leader in organic farming. Living here in Tuscany, it’s clear that there is definitely a growing culture of farming and eating more organic food, but I somehow expected richer and seemingly more “progressive” countries (like Germany) to rank higher. Well, with over a million hectares of land under organic management and just under 45,000 organic farms in operation, Italy tops the list, followed by Germany and Spain (www.organic-europe.net). Tuscany alone has more than 2,300 organic farms that produce mainly olive oil, but also world-class wines, cheeses, cereals, legumes and meat.
Some of these farms, known as “agriturismi”, rent out rooms, so you can enjoy a quiet stay and see how things are grown. Many allow their guests to pick fruit from their orchards, so you may be able to try varieties of pears and apples that you’ll never find in local Italian supermarkets, let alone in the UK. For the more adventurous, WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) offers people the opportunity to stay and work on organic and biodynamic farms. In general, for half a day of work a day, you get room and board and you can imagine how delicious the food is! Thick cannellini bean soups with parmesan shavings, schiacciata – a flatbread pizza baked with no toppings other than salt, rosemary and green olive oil, castagnaccio – a smoked chestnut flour pie, best enjoyed with fresh ricotta from sheep’s milk and honey. yum.
Many Italian moms still go to the market every day and cook fresh, healthy and tasty meals from scratch for their families. But in recent decades, families where both partners work outside the home have become the norm, so ready-to-use bottled pasta sauces, parboiled rice, and frozen pizzas have easily become available in supermarkets. The Slow Food movement was founded in Italy in 1986, as a response to this rapidly expanding fast food (and “fast life”) culture. It is now an international movement involving 80,000 people around the world. It promotes the “right to pleasure”, especially, but not only, the pleasures of the table. With its events, publications, special projects, and fairs, it defends and spreads local food and drink traditions, celebrating local specialties, promoting artisans who produce tasty, real food, and fighting mass-produced blandness of all kinds. The Slow Food movement champions biodiversity, and it is in this spirit that farmers, particularly organic ones, have re-bred the Cinta Senese pig. This is a local Tuscan breed that was shunned a few decades ago in favor of the pink pig (which is easier and quicker to fatten up). There are now amazing Cinta Senese hams and salamis that are produced on organic farms around Tuscany.
The ubiquitous but charming Jamie Oliver is a huge supporter of both organic food and Italy. “I should have been Italian,” he says in his sixth book “Jamie’s Italy,” in which he explores regional Italian cooking, often adding his own twists, while frequently using and promoting organic ingredients. He is correct that Italians treat every aspect of food with the love and attention it deserves. Italy has a wide variety of distinctive regional cuisines, all with their traditional recipes and local ingredients, such as “cavolo nero” (black cabbage, much better than it looks!) and the tasty “farro” (spelt) with flavor nutty, both from Tuscany. Some ingredients are so local that they only have dialect names and are not even known in neighboring regions, such as “stridoli” (a delicious spinach or arugula-shaped vegetable) used in Romagna, north of Tuscany. And thanks in part to the campaigns of the Slow Food movement, local varieties like the Rocchetta squash from Liguria are being returned to small farms and the market and will not be lost forever.
Friends (both in the UK and here in Italy) have told me that they would definitely buy more organic food if it was cheaper. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that here in Tuscany, buying local organic produce from farm shops is, in many cases, cheaper than buying equivalent conventionally grown food from the supermarket. Anyone who lives in the less prosperous countries of the euro zone will tell you that the cost of living has risen considerably since the euro was introduced. Many previously cheap items have doubled in price.
The rise in prices has been compounded by a ripple effect of everyone in the production chain adding a bit more to make up for the extra they have had to pay for raw materials etc. Talking to organic and biodynamic farmers, whose prices seem to have remained relatively stable, I came to the conclusion that, since many of these farms are fairly self-sufficient, their costs have not increased much and, as a consequence, they have not had to increase their prices very much. prices. Of course, this is only true if you buy products directly from the producer: as soon as someone else transports, packages and distributes them, the cost inevitably increases. So once again, the takeaway is: whether you’re in Tuscany or Tyne and Wear, take the time to slow down, buy locally grown food, and savor what you cook and eat.