Powered by milk

Italy imports most of its fresh milk

‘ What if each day you have to bring some money to your job to be able to work. Would you do that? I don’t think so.’

This quote was taken from a Austrian milk farmer at a recent conference on the CAPreform 2020 in the European Parliament in Brussels. To see a sober farmer fight for his tears when he explains that he advised his son to break his family tradition and to find another job than that of a dairy farmer, you know something serious is going on.

The CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) has mainly lead to milk surpluses and thus low prices for the European farmers. Subsidies guaranteed minimum prices for the produced milk which encouraged many dairy farmers to produce as much as possible. These surpluses have later been dumped in 3rd world countries as milk powder and incredible low income for the farmers.

Although the CAP has gone through different smaller and bigger reforms - which alluded to the negative effects of earlier policies - the situation for the dairy farmers still not seems to be very hopeful. Big dairy farmers are under contract of large companies which control their income: When a farmer doesn’t agree on the price per liter milk, the company easily decides to move to another farmer.

While most supermarkets offer fair produce form far away countries, we should consider how fair our ‘own’ farmers can farm. We (Western consumers) tend to shop as cheap as possible thereby forgetting what it did cost to produce our food.

In Germany they have set-up Die faire Milch company which gives farmers a good price for their milk and ensures high quality milk produced by cows which were not feed on genetic soya. In Italy Granarolo  brings the consumers fresh milk from their own region to the nearest supermarket. And recently a Dutch based worldwide company decided to give a price for organic milk which is independent for the price of bio-industry produced milk. 

So things seem to go in the right direction. But – once again – things cannot be realized by one part of the chain. Farmers need to be friendly to the planet thereby delivering high quality produce. Retailers should look for local produce and pay the producer a fair price. And consumers should not forget what effort it did take to produce their food. Don’t just buy the cheapest product on offer.

Pay a fair price as you like to be paid fair as well!

Mercati

A market is like a candy shop. I cannot resist the colorful and fresh produce

In contrast to many northern European countries, it is much more accepted to go shopping on a market in the southern ones. Will this tradition die with the regular market visitors?

I don’t really like to buy my fruit and veggies in the supermarket. However in my full-agenda-life in The Netherlands I used to do my shopping in a nearby ecological shop which offered products which looked fresh to me. Now I have some more time to fill in freely, I regularly visit a market. Which is easy since there is one on my doorstep every week.

Even in a big city as Milano markets are popular. I feel very happy when I pass by the colorful stalls offering mainly local (read: Italian) produce. And every time I visit a market I am amazed by the number of visitors it receives. It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is the lines in front of the stalls are always long.

It must be mentioned that the average age of a market visitor is (way) above mine. And that is reflected by the lines in the supermarket which emerge in the hours right after offices close. The in-house butcher makes a dash speed right before closing time by serving all under 40 working men and women.

Recently a national newspaper reported on the closure of many small shops. Not only the economic crisis, but also the high rental rates and the competing prices and convenience of big supermarkets and other retailers are fatal.

I agree that it takes some effort to visit a market. You need to be aware of the short opening hours. Thereby the market is – except when you live in a market addicted city as Milano – usually only once a week. And when the weather is not on your side, it might be a tough job to carry all your stuff home. But maybe you should take it in another way.

Did you ever hear the owner of the average supermarket hear you explain why he sells Dutch – in stead of Italian – potatoes? And did he teach you how to conserve best your carrots? Or did he give you a bag of apples for free because you are such an appreciated costumer? I guess not.

So maybe remember your young and vital age which enables you to carry some heavy bags and to walk around in the rain for an hour or so. Then think of all the hard working market men (which are usually a lot older than you are) waiting for you to hear the proud story of his home-grown eggplants or delicious nectarines.

Where do you go next time your fruit basket needs a fill-up?

How do you like it

Restaurants are plenty in Milano and choices are overwhelming. Of course there are the Italians offering food from all the different regions the country knows. The different pizza restaurants are one of them.

There are some stories about the origin of the pizza circling around. I think the most famous is the one of Margeritha the Savoy. The favorite pizza of this wealthy Italian woman is now known as the most simple version: pizza Margeritha. The dough is just covered with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil leaves.

Pizza used to be the food for the poor. Although it is still a cheap way to fill up, it is now eaten by many; no matter what age, what background and what income. Therefore the pizza itself or the place you can buy them could play an important role in creating a place where these people meet and get in contact with each other.  

Pizza is now available in many variations. Of course there is the well-known Napolitano which has a more soft dough. Then there is the Roman version with thin and crispy pizza dough. In Milano we also have the pizza al trancio, a so called pan pizza which is enough to fill six to eight persons. Therefore you can buy it al trancio which means no more than a piece.

Influenced by immigrants the Milanese can also buy Turkish pizza. Striking enough they couldn’t find an Italian name for this. The Turkish pizza is probably nothing different than the Turkish pizza you can eat in Germany, the Netherlands or any other European country. I don’t plan to try it any time soon.

Last but not least there is the pizza al asporto or the take away/home delivered pizza. Here you miss the fun of eating out. You just order it at whatever place you like (atmosphere doesn’t count here) and you can eat it wherever you like. Probably this is your home, but it could also be the office, at school or – when you’re lucky – in the park during sunset.

I guess you have to choose what you like most. 

Exhibitionism

One of the artworks made by  Gino di Maggio and Daniel Spoerri

There can be found many similarities and differences between Dutch and Italian eating habits. Lately I’ve become interested in the latter one.

As I’ve mentioned before Italians love to eat and made eating an important part of their daily rhythm. The Dutch and other inhabitants from Northern European countries also like to eat, but seem to value this in another way than their southern neighbors.

Milano hosts a lot of exhibitions. Some weeks ago I visited a mostre in the Palazzo Reale. The exhibition showed an overview of artworks made in Milano made in the tumultuous seventies. In those years Italy went through hard times with political struggle, an economic crisis and terrorist attacks. The artworks reacted on the events that happened during those years; pictures of demonstrations on the square in front of the Duomo, paintings discussing the relation between social events and the autonomy of an artist and poetry. One of the many works on display attracted me in particular.

Food has been an important topic of art for many decades. We know the still lives of fruit and game, see the importance of food in movies and like to look at beautiful decorated cakes at the bakery around the corner. But to make leftovers part of the work is something more exeptional.

Gino di Maggio and Daniel Spoerri created an artwork halfway the 1970’s that reminded me of some more recent, namely the Last Supper by Raul Ortega Ayala which was performed and exhibited at Stroom in the Dutch city of Den Haag in 2010. Both artworks showed the leftovers of a dinner which was eaten by a group of people which wasn’t familiar until they became the main actors of each particular artwork. Although the event itself – eating the dinner – was indispensable to create the artwork, it was the display of the leftovers of that event that became important for the audience.

Both artworks where performed and displayed in different countries. However, they seem to be almost similar in actions: a group of people - whether they know each other or not – sit around a table and focus on their meal and the discussions they can have with their table mates.

No matter how similar these to works seem to be, to me there is a big difference in the level of northern and southern European ‘food exhibitionism’. In the north, everyone just eats when they feel like, whether this is at a dining table, in the train or during a walk though the city. In the south you will hardly see anyone combining one of his meals with other activities besides having a conversation with the one he is joining his meal with.

Bravo for both artists who made the events – joining a dinner while seated at a table with others – such an important work of art in both countries!