17/07/2012 - Editorial by Carlo Petrini, from La Rpubblicadel July 16
I remember that when there was the '94 flood in the Langhe, which did extensive damage and also took human lives, one of the first signs of a return to normalcy was when bars, taverns and other places for socializing began to open again. Not so much because businesses were starting up again, but rather because people had places to meet, to hang out. I had the same feeling, even though the memory of the earthquake is all too fresh and concretely present, in Bomporto at La Lanterna di Diogene, a model osteria (with vegetable garden and vinegar cellar) that employs some handicapped young people, damaged by the earthquake but which about a week ago invited me to an evening that was also meant to be a way of announcing to the world that it is starting again. I was told the same thing by those who were present at the Entrà tavern in Massa Finalese near Finale Emilia. Host Antonio Previdi, together with his sister cook and precisely with the help of Giovanni from the Lanterna di Diogene, officially reopened the dances. A simple but excellent dinner, with products from the area and eaten outdoors in the courtyard that is now the restaurant's "hall," brought out from a newly secured kitchen. It must be said that Antonio and family continue to sleep in tents, the house above the tavern has cracked significantly in several places, in the bedroom the heavy solid wood dresser is still ten centimeters away from the wall, exactly as far as it moved that evening of May 20. In the house, the Previds have hardly entered it anymore, among pieces of plaster and some rubble on the floor there are still shoes, some of the little girl's toys. It's still scary. They first put in place the kitchen of the tavern, on the ground floor, to start again also strong from the solidarity of loyal customers, friends hosts and producers. Antonio betrays emotion as he recounts the surprise of innkeepers not far away who, upon learning of his cellar gone to ruin, with all the broken bottles, started donating bottles to him; people who usually compete squeezed together because they are aware that it is first of all in these premises that a semblance of normality is regained, a strong and active social network is recreated. Some producers have arrived with their cured meats and cheeses. The air is not at all strange as these taverns reopen amidst a thousand problems, one is even able to smile while being together. It's not that you don't think about the earthquake and the many things that need to be done, but putting effort and passion into your work for these people means so much: not feeling alone, not feeling isolated, feeling ready for a return to life as before, no matter how difficult it may be. The same thing goes for other social gathering centers.
And while you are there, you talk about the producers and farmer friends, the vendors who have had damage, the people who have lost almost everything. You understand that the timing of solidarity has to be right, once the initial outpouring of generosity that was rightly driven by media coverage has passed. Now that these areas are talked about a little less, "except on birthdays," as they say in commenting on the news that came out exactly one month after the second earthquake, the time is coming to give very concrete aid. It may even be just enough to go back to the taverns, visit them from all over Italy to make them feel a physical presence, a closeness and a full room that sometimes do better than a euro donated by cell phone, and then plan what will be needed, in time. That's right, because speaking of agriculture, it has its seasons, and soon there will be a need for a national network to take action for an operation that could become exemplary. I am referring to pears: the areas affected by the earthquake are huge producers of them. An agriculture that has become almost monocultural: there are still watermelons and melons of extraordinary quality in the area, but for example peaches, once renowned, are almost gone. Pears usually have to be harvested all at once, from mid-August, a little before they fully ripen and then crammed into refrigerated warehouses that keep them for a long time, in order to sell them at multiple mandates to large retailers and "lengthen" the selling season. This is the agro-industrial system, which makes up for the lack of traditional early and late varieties (these did lengthen the seasons), with a more "technological" system. The problem is that these warehouses (as at first also the pumps for massive irrigation, now repaired) were heavily damaged by the earthquake and will not recover in time. We know full well that the warehouses have not held (and now that they will be rebuilt, in addition to complying with earthquake standards, let us try not to create more wounds to the landscape with ignoble constructions).
Now, as harvest time approaches, pear growers do not know what to do. Other warehouses in other regions will no longer be as free as they are now, because apples will start to be received there, so there is a risk of having to let the fruit rot on the trees. So, just as I was in Bomporto, it was thought with the deputy mayor of San Felice sul Panaro, with the mayor of Finale Emilia, and with all the protagonists of the local Slow Food network, to prepare in time a plan to save what can be saved. Let us take the inauspicious opportunity to return to a more precisely seasonal consumption of pears. Let's select those producers we can help, build a network of buyers (large distributors, fair trade buying groups, school and hospital canteens, restaurants, markets, trips to farms for direct sales) who will commit to buy "en primeur"-in advance- these pears, in exchange for them being picked ripe and at their best time. Farmers will not have to worry if the pears are on the trees and will not go to the warehouses as usual. Because they will already be sold, as soon as they are ready picked up or sent to those who have made their promise. We believe we will be able to mobilize a large enough network (certainly not enough for everyone, but large enough), and hopefully it will at least put a patch on a sector that has already been in trouble for a few years due to the crisis of the agro-industrial food system. A system that in case of catastrophic natural events shows all its extreme fragility and ability to generalize damage. Perhaps returning to a different way of distributing, to human relationships instead of purely commercial ones, to a respect for true seasonality and thus also for natural rhythms, will instill what is perhaps a small drop of concrete solidarity, but also a way of reflecting on how we produce and consume our food. Get ready, we will let people know where and how to request pears, and then for the week that they are harvested nice and ripe you should all run to buy them, eat them, cook them. We are sure that even in this way we will recreate sociality, make peace with Nature and with our territories: you only had to look at the eyes of Antonio and his wife, or John and his boys as they worked again to know that we will make it, that they will make it.