We are used to discussing the sad story of agriculture in North America in the 21st century:
- The high ecological costs that come from industrial production;
- The glut of cheap and unhealthy calories;
- Huge food waste yet at the same time tragic food insecurity.
Yet if you read my blog, you might assume that here in Italy, things are different. Aren’t Italians the people who understand and value rural life? And isn’t the quality of food tied to preserving the environment? But is this the real story? Or is this a version of Italy that is fast becoming history?
Part of the reason that I write this blog is to document this side of Italy’s fast disappearing history, making sure that the Italy I know and love, one based on an agricultural and rural life, and full of artisans, is celebrated. Over the course of my career as a journalist, writer and cook I’ve had the great good fortune to come into contact with some truly extraordinary people who share these goals. Happily many of my colleagues  have also become good friends.
It is with great pleasure that I would like to invite you to come listen to two of my most illustrious and well informed friends discuss some of the issues facing Italy today when it comes to the country’s food heritage.
Evan Kleiman, the host of the NPR radio program Good Food, will interview food activist Fabrizia Lanza to discuss some of the most ugrent issues facing Italian food culture today.
Evan will conduct an hour long talk with Fabrizia, asking her about the agricultural scene in in Italy and her farm and school in particular. Among the issues they’ll tackle:
- How do small Italian farms survive in the globalized environment of the EU?Â
- What have been the positive and negative results of having a business that relies on international clients.Â
- What is the relationship of the Fabrizia’s farm to the local communities?Â
PLEASE JOIN US:
- When: Thursday March 9, 2017, 6pm
- Where: American University of Rome, Via Pietro Roselli 4, Auriana Auditorium
- What: NPR Radio Host and Author Evan Kleiman interviews food activist Fabrizia Lanza
If you would like to attend, please visit this page to register your name. Or, Â you can leave your name below or send me an email and I can register for you.
Evan Kleiman first visited Italy at the age of 17 and it changed her life. Food became linked with cultural experience and was to infect every part of her world. She opened her first restaurant,Angeli Caffe in 1984, and by the time her beloved restaurant closed in 2012 it was an L.A. institution known as much for the warmth of the welcome as for the food. Evan is the author of 7 best selling cookbooks and has been the host of NPR’s KCRW’s Good Food since 1998. She is based in Los Angeles but considers Rome her second home.
Fabrizia Lanza was born in Palermo in 1961 to the renowned Tasca family, the daughter of cooking school founder Anna Tasca Lanza. The family’s 200-year-old agricultural estate and Tasca d’Almerita winery instilled a love of farm-to-table production in Fabrizia from an early age. After a 20 year career as a museum curator, she returned to her family’s estate in 2006 to take over her mother’s hugely successful cooking school. Fabrizia is the author of two books, including her most recent Coming Home to Sicily. She continues to promote Sicilian food practices and slow food traditions through her school, her writing and her video documentation. She has recently extended her School’s teaching program to launch the 10-week Cook the Farm, a program for international chefs to learn about culinary and horticultural production in Sicily and the Mediterranean.
I hope you can make it!!!!
PLEASE JOIN US:
- When: Thursday March 9, 2017, 6pm
- Where: American University of Rome, Via Pietro Roselli 4, Auriana Auditorium
Jack Reisbeck
Will an audio version be available?
Elizabeth
An audio version of the conversation online? We will try to do a Facebook Live recording.
Michelle Carli
A facebook live would be great! Do you know if NPR plans on eventually putting it on the air?
Grazie!
Michelle
Elizabeth
No, the interview as we’re doing it is not being recorded professionally. So it could never be on the air. But I’m sure that Evan will be interviewing Fabrizia in the future on her show. But the Facebook live will always be available to listen to, and I’ll imbed it in a blog post too.
Debby Hughes
Can you make this talk available on a webcam video so one can log in from afar?
Is the discussion in Italian or English?
Thank you.
Elizabeth
I can do a Facebook Live version I guess. Great idea! I’ve never done that before. It will be in English.
phyllis@oracibo
I have a friend who is taking the Cook the Farm classes as we speak and am so looking forward to hearing his stories. He’s not actually a chef but has a huge passion for food and that is what drew him…to learn so much more!
Elizabeth
Lucky him!!!!
laurie kalb
Sounds fantastic, Elizabeth! Auguri! So wish I could be there, but will be in the U.S. that week.
Josephine Wennerholm
What a meeting of minds ! And hearts … I would absolutely love to attend this, thanks Elizabeth.
Elizabeth
Oh good!!! I was just going to message you on FB. Glad you saw this!!!
Richard pirrera
Hi Elizabeth,
Would u kindly sign me up for your live event on March 9th. [email protected]
Thank you,
Richard
P.s. Will there be a notification?
Anamaria
Sounds very interesting! Preserving the cultural memory is integral to human life. Thank you for participating in that. So much of our cultural memory is broken. I think one of the most important things we can do is repair it in some way– which is why cookbooks grounded in tradition are invaluable (as are traditional farming practices and farm to table food).