| For the week of July 30, 2007 |
Italian Agriculture: It’s all About the Food |
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As the philosopher Voltaire once said, nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking, if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. In Italy, one quickly discovers food is much more than simple sustenance and nutrition. It is a way of life.
On a recent trip to Parma, Italy, it become very clear that Italian agriculture is all one thing – food. Italians are proud of their culture, and the country is full of food products that exemplify that state of mind. Recipes have been handed down for centuries, and much of Italy’s food is tied directly to a region and the land on which it is produced.
Products such as Parmigiano-Reggiano, Provolone Val Padana and Prosciutto di Parma are branded foods of Italy under a program called Protected Denomination of Origin, or DOP. Production of each DOP is an integrated, time-intensive process overseen by several product-specific consortiums, providing quality control and brand protection.
Everything from the production of the raw product, such as milk for cheese or hogs for ham, to the retail labeling of the food, is monitored by the consortium. Because of this, a great deal of Italian food production is vertically integrated. Italian farmers and ranchers produce for the brand.
In many respects, this is value-added production at its finest. Each consortium attracts some of the best producers and culinary professionals in their field. Cheese masters and ham curers bring to the table tremendous experience and specific knowledge, dating back to the 1200s. This time and care for agriculture and the resulting food products translate into a unique flavor and tremendous marketing potential for Italian goods.
Outside of DOP’s, other Italian organizations, such as the water company S.Pellegrino and the pasta company Barilla, successfully market “true” Italian products around the world. Both companies have similar philosophies. S.Pellegrino encourages consumers to “Live in Italian” through the consumption of their water. Similarly, Barilla’s guiding principle states, “Creating, cooking and eating food is much more than simply meeting a basic human need – it is an art.”
With high quality pasta produced from a family recipe and sound marketing, Barilla charged into the American market in 1994. In just five years, Barilla became the top pasta brand in the U.S., and it currently commands 25 percent of the U.S. market. With confirmation that the American population enjoyed the quality of Italian products, Barilla has continued to develop additional value-added products, such as pasta sauces and cheese-stuffed pastas.
In 2004 Barilla took its largest step in promoting and marketing authentic Italian cuisine to America through the launch of the culinary institute and gourmet shop, Academia Barilla. Through teaching the world to cook Italian-style meals and selling the highest quality products Italy has to offer, Barilla has diversified its organization and continues to develop relationships through food.
Barilla is only one of numerous examples of how Italian products are taking the world by storm. And although the philosopher Voltaire summed up so eloquently why people are passionate about food, a better motto just might be, the belly rules the mind.
Stefphanie Gambrell is a Domestic Policy Economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation.