Can the web save Italys artisanal food producers?
It’s not what you might expect – move to Italy and find it’s difficult to get local produce except via the internet It’s a funny old planet isn’t it? Just as you think you have given the auld country the shove for its crappy processed foods and homogenized high streets you find yourself staring in disbelief at the same lowlife practices in Italy. In fact with the UK’s new emphasis on ‘local’ the two countries could be swapping places. After moving to a lovely wee village surrounded by olives, wild asparagus and wild boar just 30 miles from Rome, I’ve noticed it’s getting harder to source the good stuff unless I go into the fields myself and nick it. Well, it would be if I could upheave a wild hog. Tragically, so the story goes, the locals are increasingly flinging themselves at convenience and its ugly sister the supermarket, while dumping the gifted, passionate, artisanal producers that made Italy so food-blessed in the past. Sure, I’m grand for regular supplies of the local basics –
