Italy: Day 8

The "Farm and Food Tour" day of our Italy trip was one of my absolute favorite days and I learned a lot from the different stops that we made. Exploring the art, history, craftsmanship and culture of agriculture in this region was particularly eye-opening and connected to my interests in food as a method of communicating, and using journalism to tell a larger story about agriculture.The dairy and cheese making was something that I had never experienced before, and I found the most striking aspects to be the amount of manual labor that still has to be performed, in this day and age, to perfect and process the cheese. I appreciated it - and will never look at parmigiano reggiano the same.The vinegar farms had an incredible attention to detail and family that I found to be so delicate and interesting. The idea of passing down a bottle of vinegar or a big jar as a gift for a wedding, birthday or anniversary, and the tight-knit family historical focus, was heartfelt and made me more invested in the product and the family. I loved the attention to history and importance on quality over quantity. Money was not the primary driver in their operation and I commend them for that.From what I've experienced abroad and domestically, it was very different. Farms in the United States, in part due to the stigma surrounding farming as an occupation and in part due to the nature of the field, are often profit-driven and can have a deep family emphasis similar to the one shown at the vinegar farm, but that is not always the case. I felt that the Italian farm and food tours showed how much Italians care, appreciate and respect their food and the process it takes to grow it. In America, we're also so rushed that I think, at times, we've lost that.It is similar in that it combines modern technologies with old trades, and several businesses in agriculture, especially the smaller and local entities, do that domestically.