Food, farming and politics from 1900 to 2000 at Castel di Fiori

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By Brian Chatterton

The thousand years to 1900

Castel di Fiori changed greatly over these one thousand years but the way of life of most of the contadini (sharefarmers) was essentially similar. The population of Castel di Fiori and the surrounding farm houses varied over the centuries with plagues, famines, wars and shortages interspersed with periods of peace and relative prosperity. A figure of 350 to 400 peoples seems to have been the average during better times.

Podere valle Pulcini housed three families - probably 20 people including children - and a quick count of the other farmsteads and the houses in the village shows that a population of 400 was quite feasible.

The population during this 1000 years was all Italian and more than just Italian - they were all born in the village or in those nearby. Only the wives of the wealthy landowners may have come from further afield - perhaps as far as Orvieto.

Farming economy

Castel di Fiori was in 1900 a farming village as it had been in 900. The whole economy revolved around farming on an almost completely self-sufficient basis.

Globalisation is a modern word but not a new phenomena. The later part of the 19th century saw an expansion of free trade (the old name for globalisation) that had a considerable impact in other parts of Italy. For example in Chianti wine production for export to Britain expanded at the expense of cereals. The expansion of free trade seems to have had little impact on Castel di Fiori in 1900.

The basic food of most people was wheat as it had been one thousand years earlier. The spelt wheat (farro) used in soups and broth had declined in importance. The yield and disease resistance of bread wheat had improved. It was eaten in large quantities as bread or pasta. The diet of the sharefamers still included pulses such as lentils, chick peas and beans that were grown locally.

The bulk of the population who were sharefarmers lived in a cashless society as they had from the first settlement of the area. I mean cashless not in the modern rather literal sense of a plastic card instead of coins and notes but cashless in the sense that they rarely used or possessed cash of any type. The contadini paid their farm rent in the form of a half share of the production not as a cash amount. They produced almost all their own food except salt. They exchanged surpluses with neighbours. They purchased some items from local traders using eggs as a barter medium. They sold a few surplus livestock for cash that was used to purchase a few items such as salt and farming tools and implements but most of their daily life was outside the cash economy. A cash purchase was something that needed to be planned in advance with a cash sale. They certainly did not have bank accounts and very little cash hidden under the bed or in the folding table.

New American crops

New American crops had been introduced gradually over the previous four centuries. It is hard to imagine Italy without the tomato as today it is so central to the food culture but it came from America as did the potato. They were both grown at Castel di Fiori in 1900.

Maize, misleadingly called Grano turco or Turkish wheat in Italian, was the other great American crop import that was grown on a large scale in northern Italy but not at Castel di Fiori. Maize is a summer crop and is now grown in the Chiana valley under irrigation. It can be grown on winter rainfall stored in the soil but this technique requires deep soils which are not common at Castel di Fiori. Relying completely on the winter rainfall to grow a summer crop is risky.

Farming technology

Farming technology improved a great deal over the thousand years from 900 to 1900 and while I have flippantly referred to the ploughman's hat on the Etruscan model (see photo in Chapter 1) as being the most significant difference between the Etruscan plough and those used two thousand years later in fact the plough used in 1900 was much more advanced. It was however still pulled by two cows. It was more effective in cultivating the soil and killing weeds but certainly no faster. Larger teams of cows or draught horses (faster than cattle) were not used.

The plough Plough set to the left. The steel plough used at Podere valle Pulcini was a sophisticated "one way" plough. Paradoxically this means that it could plough to the right or the left. For example the plough would be set to plough to the left as it worked up a field. The furrow was cut and the earth turned to the left. At the end of the field the ploughman turned the cows and ploughed down the field. The plough would now be set to the right - that is the furrow would turn the earth to the right. The overall effect was that all the furrows turned the earth in the same direction - hence a "one way plough." The advantage of this method of ploughing was that it avoided the ridges and furrows created by turning the earth in different directions. Plough set to the right. The wooden beam extended forward and two cows pulled the plough. Note the low handled for the ploughman. Either he was very short or permanently bent over. Probably both.

Harrow points. They were bolted to a wooden harrow frame.

Blade style harrow points in wooden frame.

Cultivators and harrows were used to break the clods and level the ground after ploughing.

Hand tools hand improved but were recognisably the same.

The seed was sown by hand broadcasting.

Only animal manure was used as a fertiliser.

Harvesting was carried out with scythes, the grain was threshed with flails, and winnowed in the wind.

The grain was milled by hand or in the flour mill powered by water.

There are two abandoned water-driven flour mills at Castel di Fiori. Water power was always a problem because the creeks are seasonal and the flow often stops in summer just when it is required to mill the new season's harvest. The first mill was built some distance below Castel di Fiori where it collected water from the two creeks that pass on either side of the village. This old mill was probably in use in 1900 or had been recently abandoned. A second mill was built nearer to the village below the abbey. It was more convenient but had a smaller catchment for water collection. It has now been converted into a house for summer visitors.

Transport links

By the turn of the century the railway had come to Fabro Stazione in the Chiana valley below Castel di Fiori but it seems to have had little immediate impact on Castel di Fiori as the roads or tracks to the village were rough and suitable mostly for walking and pack animals. The impact of the outside world on Castel di Fiori was slight.

Politics

The second half of 19th century was the period of the great "Risorgimento" in Italy. The Risorgimento was a period when Italy was again united as a single country after more than a thousand years of fragmentation. It was more than reunification. There was a political, cultural, social and economic liberation but it was confined to the middle classes. The life of the poor contadini did not change noticeably. They did not have the right to vote. The franchise was restricted to the wealthy and educated elite. There was a great change in land ownership as the church which had owned most of the land sold it in a fire sale. They feared that the new Kingdom of Italy which replace the papal power in Umbria would confiscate much of the church property. The new ownwes were those made rich by the Risorgimento but for the contadini the change of owners meant nothing.

The economic prospects of contadini did not change nor were they encouraged to migrate to find better paid work. There was no free education or health available.

1900 to 2000

Food

The changes to the diet of the residents of Castel di Fiori has been enormous over the last one hundred years. In 1900 the diet of the inhabitants was closely linked to the products of farming. One hundred years later that link has been completely broken. Some of the older residents with a farming background still produce most of their vegetables but they have independent pension incomes and are no longer tied to the land as they were in 1900.

1900	Food type	2000
Pasta and bread were the main sources of energy for most people - the contadini (share farmers) in particular. All the wheat was grown and processed locally.	Carbohydrates	Pasta and bread are still an important part of the diet but wheat flour is also consumed in biscuits and cakes. Wheat is produced locally but is traded out of the area. There in no flour produced in the village. Sugar has been added to the diet and is consumed in cakes, coffee, drinks etc. There is no locally produced sugar but it was grown in the Chiana valley until recent reductions in European Union subsidies on sugar beet.
The diet of the contadini was poor in proteins. Pulse crops such as lentils, chick peas and beans were grown and consumed locally. Animal protein was limited for the contadini. They had eggs in season that were used for pasta. There was chicken, pig and sheep meat but it was limited. Surplus meat from cattle was sold. Milk was available in season from sheep and cows. Some may have been made into cheese. There was some meat available from hunting. Small animals as well as wild boar were hunted.	Protein	Lentils, chick peas and beans are still eaten but are not such an important part of the diet. Beans are still grown but sold out of the area. Animal protein is now cheap and consumed in great quantities. Mostly pig, chicken and beef/veal but also some from sheep. Fish is also consumed. All the pasta contains eggs. Milk from cows is consumed all the year round as is cheese, yoghurt etc. All this is purchased as there are no cows or sheep now in Castel di Fiori. Hunting is now carried out by groups from outside the village. Very little meat from hunting is now consumed in Castel di Fiori. Small animals are protected.
The main fat was lard from pigs and fat from other animals. Olives were grown in Castel di Fiori and there was a small frantoio in the village (now a studio) but there were fewer olive trees than now. Olive oil was expensive for the contadini and most was consumed by the landlords or sold. The wealthy also used small amounts of butter in cooking.	Fats	Little lard is now consumed and no other animal fats except butter. Most residents use olive oil from local production or purchased from supermarkets. Other vegetable oils from rape, sunflowers etc. are also used. Foreign residents use more butter.
Castel di Fiori was totally self sufficient. While food preservation based on the principles established by Pasteur were in common use in the 19th century it is doubtful that they had reached the village by 1900 or whether the sharefarmers could afford the jars or pasteurise them on their wood fires.	Fruit and vegetables	The farmers and retired contadini grow most of their own vegetables and preserve large quantities of tomatoes for the winter but the foreigners and summer visitors buy in their supplies. Fruit comes from other parts of Italy, Europe and the world.
Salt was an important purchase from the world outside Castel di Fiori. It required cash or barter products. The local diet was rich in other minerals and vitamins. Vegetables were prolific in summer and during winter wild plants were gathers for a field salad. Juniper berries were collected in the forest and used in cooking.	Minerals, vitamins and spices	Salt has become an almost insignificant part of the cost of living. It is used in smaller quantities as meat is no longer preserved in salt in the village. The wild insalata di campo is still collected from the fields. Spices are not common but pepper and chilli (peperoncino) are used to some extent and others in small quantities for special occasions or cakes. Juniper berries are no longer harvested.
Water from the spring below the old abbey of S. Pietro do Aqualta was the main beverage. It had to be transported to the houses as there was no reticulated supply. Most contadini had a few vines and made some wine. The quality was variable as the climate is favourable for fungus growth in summer and it is doubtful whether the contadini had the funds or the equipment to provide adequate fungicide protection.	Beverages	Water from the spring (now pipe to every house) is no longer so dominant. It is drunk by the older residents but many use bottled water from springs hundreds of kilometres away. Coffee and tea are drunk. Wine is still made locally but a great deal is purchased in bottles from outside. Bottled beers are drunk and a range of soft drinks.

Energy

Energy comes in two forms.

Direct energy is used for cooking, heating and transport.

Virtual energy is the energy imbedded in a product. Steel and aluminium are examples of products that are rich in virtual energy. This does not mean they are hot but they have been transformed from ores into metals by the input of energy. On a smaller scale flour and then bread contain virtual energy as energy is required to grind the grain and later to bake the dough.

Domestic energy

In 2000 greatest consumption of energy in Castel di Fiori is for heating in winter. Renewable firewood from the surrounding forests in used extensively. Relatively small amounts of energy are used for lighting, cooking, food processing, washing and cleaning but it has transformed the life of the women in Castel di Fiori over the last one hundred years.

Direct energy
1900	Task	2000
For the contadini there was little domestic heating. The houses had open fireplaces for cooking. They were inefficient and the kitchens were cold. Other rooms had no heating and were freezing in winter. Firewood from the forest was the fuel. The animals in the rooms below provided some heat.	Domestic Heating	All houses now have central heating. The systems run on Liquid Petroleum Gas which is reticulated in the village or from firewood harvested from the forest. There are also open wood fires.
There was little additional light beyond that provided by the sun. Candles made from fat were used and in winter the kitchen fire provided light as well as heat. The wealthy used kerosene lights.	Lighting	Electric light is not only universal in all the houses but there are street lights in Castel di Fiori.
Food was prepared by hand using only simple utensils The 19th century saw a proliferation of hand operated kitchen gadgets but these were confined to the wealthy parts of wealthy countries. Some of the grain was ground into flour by hand.	Food preparation	Food preparation gadgets are now commonly available for everyone and are powered by electricity. A great deal of food preparation (for example pasta and bread) has moved from the home to the shop or even large factory.
This was a major task carried out exclusively by women. The clothes and sheets had to be carried down to the spring below the abbey and washed on rocks (a washing basin was built by the comune during the 20th century). The washing was carried back wet, dried and some was ironed.	Washing clothes etc.	Now the water comes to the clothes not the clothes to the water. Washing machines reduce the work load.
Sweeping and scrubbing by hand was the only means of cleaning.	House cleaning	Sweeping is supported but not completely replaced by vacuum cleaners and scrubbing is supported by a range of chemicals.
Wool and hemp were produced in Castel di Fiori and used for clothing. Other cloth was probably purchased but sewn at home. Leather came from locally slaughter animals but people did not wear shoes all the time.	Clothes and shoe manufacture	All purchased from outside the village and now a virtual energy product.
Virtual energy
Flour contains some virtual energy as power is required to grind the grain. This energy came from the water mill although some may still have been ground by hand. The small frantoio in Castel di Fiori may have been operating in 1900 and I am not sure of the power source.	Food preparation	The modern diet contains large amounts of virtual energy. Product are carried back and forth half way round the world. Grinding, processing and baking takes place in remote locations.
The range of domestic appliances was limited to a few simple tools such as knives and choppers which were purchased from outside and required energy in their manufacture. Other tools such as rolling pins for pasta were made from local wood.	Domestic appliances	Domestic appliances are all produced elsewhere and contain large amounts of virtual energy in their manufacture.
Packaging was local, reusable and renewable. Hemp was grown at Castel di Fiori for sacks. Baskets were made from local materials. Straw was used for packing.	Packaging	Enormous amounts of virtual energy are required for modern packaging. Food is packaged in paper, glass and plastic. Water comes in plastic bottles. Wine and beer in glass. Soft drinks and beer in aluminium.
They hardly existed in 1900. Ash was used as an abrasive cleaner and perhaps salt and vinegar but generally they were too expensive to use for cleaning.	Household chemicals	There is now a huge range of household chemicals for cleaning clothes, plates, floors etc. They all contain virtual energy.

Farming energy

Years and years ago Australian farmers had a slogan to promote their green farming credentials. The slogan ran "Wool runs on grass." The same could be said of farming and transport in 1900. It ran on grass or rather a mixture of grass, pasture legumes and cereal straw.

By 2000 it ran on diesel and virtual energy.

Direct energy
1900	Farm operation	2000
Hard physical work by the ploughman and even more so by the cows pulling the plough. They in turn derived their energy from local food.	Ploughing the land	The tractor running on diesel does the hard part but a human operator is still required.
Cultivators and harrows also pulled by cows and controlled by a farmer.	Preparing the seedbed.	Like the ploughing a tractor job.
Hand broadcast by a farmer.	Sowing the seed	Tractor and seeder.
The crop was harvested using scythes(operated by men). The sheathes were tied with straw and carried to the threshing floor in carts drawn by cows.	Harvesting the crop	A harvester with a diesel motor harvests the whole crop.
At the threshing floor flails were used to remove the grain and chaff. They were separated using the wind.	Threshing and cleaning	The same machine threshes and cleans.
The grain was ground into flour at the water-driven mill or by hand.	Milling the grain	The grain is sold and milled into flour elsewhere.
Sheep, cows and pigs were grazed in the forests and on rough grazing land. They were taken out each day by herders and returned to the stable at night. Chickens were kept near the house.	Livestock	There are no grazing livestock at Castel di Fiori in 2000. Some chickens are kept.
Carried out by hand	Olive picking	Some carried harvested by hand but more than half are harvested with mechanical beaters driven by compressed air from a tractor.
Carried out locally. I am not sure of the power source but it included a lot of hand work and perhaps a donkey to drive the grinding wheels.	Pressing the olives	Now taken to Monteleone and processed using electricity.
Carried out by hand	Grape picking	Carried out by hand
All done by hand (or foot)	Making the wine	Now electric driven crusher and pumps.
Virtual energy
The main power sources were cows and humans. They ran on local food and were built from local food.	Power sources	The main power source is now a series of diesel and electric engines that require considerable amounts of energy in their manufacture.
Some iron and steel parts (mouldboards, harrow tips etc.) but also local wood used.	Implements	Now all steel, aluminium, copper, plastic etc. containing large amounts of virtual energy.
All the fertiliser came from local sources. The crops were rotated so that legume crops enriched the soil. Animal manure was another source of fertiliser.	Fertiliser	Fertilisers are all chemicals containing virtual energy.
Depended on cultivation, crop rotations and grazing.	Weed control	Herbicides are the main method of weed control. Contain virtual energy.
Fungicides have a long history on vines. Their use at Castel di Fiori was probably limited by cash.	Fungicides	Fungicides now used.
Not available	Insecticides	Little used

Transport

Walking was the main form of transport in 1900 not only for humans but for animals. Now humans walk to reduce their weight (a laughable concept for the contadini in 1900) or their blood pressure. They do not walk to go somewhere.

Direct energy
1900	Task	2000
Walking was the main form of personal transport. The landowners, agents and managers also used horses.	Personal transport	Now everyone has a car, an ape or a scooter.
A great deal would have been carried by people but otherwise a donkey would have carried packs. Heavier loads of grain, hay, straw etc. would have been carried in a cart drawn by two cows.	Local transport of goods.	Tractor and trailer and ape used for local journeys but a mule train used occasionally to carry firewood out of the more remote forest areas to the nearest road.
Heavier loads in carts drawn by cows. For example surplus grain from the landowners' share. Pack animals such as donkeys. Carried by people. Animals for sale such as cattle walked out.	Goods to nearby towns.	Trucks used for heavier loads. Otherwise cars and ape.
Virtual energy
Not only did they run on locally produced food but they were built from it.	Humans and pack animals	Now cars used for personal transport and carrying good. Large amounts of virtual energy contained in the steel, rubber etc.
Carts pulled by cows. Cows as above run on grass. Carts contained a small amount of iron but mostly local wood.	Heavier loads	Trucks are considerable consumers of virtual energy.

Land ownership, technology and land use.

The mezzadria in 1900

In 1900 the mezzadria was in full force as the major form of land ownership and use. There were a few contadini who had escaped the system and managed to purchase their own small farms but they were not common. I do not know if there were any independent peasant farmers at Castel di Fiori in 1900.

The mezzadria is translated as share farming but it was quite a complex social and economic arrangement. The usual arrangement in this part of Umbria was that the landowner supplied the farm house and the basic farming implements and draught animals to a contadino's family or a group of families. With our farm at Podere valle Pulcini there were three families working the farm that consisted of less than ten hectares. Only half of the ten hectares was arable. The sharefarmers worked the farm - the "podere" in Italian - and provided a half share of the grain, olives or other produce to the landowner. In central Italy, unlike the south, the sharefarming agreements were usually for life or even continued for generations.

In the south of Italy the agreements were for short periods and the sharefarmers starved in the village if they missed out on the allocation of land that season.

In the Chiana valley and other rich farming areas in the north of Italy the landowners felt they could make better profits from working the land with paid labour rather than taking only a half share of the produce. The farm houses in these areas are huge barrack-like constructions to house dozens of families of workers.

The sharefarmer in the mezzadria system paid half the output as rent and then paid further levies in kind (perhaps ten or fifteen percent) to the landowner or other capitalists to have the wheat ground into flour or the olives processed into oil.

The livestock side of the farming enterprise is more difficult to disentangle. The chickens and eggs belonged to the sharefarmers and the surplus eggs were traded for necessities such as salt. The sharefarmer also kept rabbits and pigeons on the same individual basis. I am not sure how the other livestock were organised in terms of shares between farmer and landowner.

The other livestock consisted of sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. They were not fed grain as they are in modern livestock systems but grazed in the forest, on other rough land and on the stubbles of grain and pulse crops after harvest. Some hay was made to feed them during the winter. The pigs ate the acorns from the oak trees. Traditionally most of the pigs were killed in the autumn after they had grazed the acorns.

The vegetable garden produce was used by the family or exchanged with other families and the landowner received some but I think on an informal basis rather than a fixed share. There was no means of selling this fresh produce so any surplus was in any case worthless.

The farming system

The farming system integrated crops and livestock in a way that seems to be rapidly disappearing in modern farming systems. Integration means more than just mixed farming - livestock and crops had a mutual dependence and interaction.

The cattle provided the main power source for farming. They pulled the plough, the cultivator, the harrow and cart. They grazed on surrounding hills, on the crop residues - the straw (particularly the straw from legume crops such as lentils, chick peas and beans) and on the weeds that grew after the crop had been harvested. Removing the stubble made ploughing easier and the manure fertilised the land. Other livestock such as sheep, goats and pigs did not provide traction but helped with weed control and fertility. In fact sheep and goats are better at close grazing weeds than cattle.

Manure from the stable was used for the vegetable gardens and perhaps the wheat fields.

As far as I can gather no chemical fertilisers were used in 1900. They were used in other parts of Italy at that period but the mezzadria system provided a block to their introduction. The landowner was hesitant to purchase them as he only obtained a half share of the increased yield. The sharefarmer had no money or capital to risk on fertilisers beside he would only receive half of the return. The mezzadria system was based on a long tradition which did not include cash inputs. Trying to organise it on a modern profit and loss basis would have been impossible.

There were no fences and all the livestock were herded by hand or tethered on a rope.

The farmers had a rotation of cereals - mostly wheat - and legume crops. The legume crops added some fertility to the soil if their stubbles were grazed. It was not great as a high proportion was removed with the seed. Given the low fertility of the soil even this was important. Other crops such as hemp (for fibre not to smoke!) were grown.

The vines and olives were grown in a mixed system described by Cato. He was a Roman writer on agriculture who lived about 2200 years ago. The olive trees were planted on a wide spacing of 10 m. X 10 m. (compared to modern specialised groves of 6 m X 6 m or less). Vines were planted between the trees in the rows and the land between the rows was used for crops and pasture.

The forest

Castel di Fiori is surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of hectares of forest. The forest is privately owned on a basis quite different from the freehold title that has become normal in Britain, USA, Australia and other countries with an Anglo-Saxon heritage. In 1900 the forest contained a low density of large, old, oak trees - perhaps 100 years old or more. The open areas between the trees were grazed by livestock including the pigs.

The grazing was free to all the contadini nearby. They could also collect the fallen limbs for firewood, the mushrooms and other wild plants as well as hunt wild animals. It was a continuation of the mediaeval traditions that had been extinguished in Britain over the previous two or three hundred years. In Britain poaching (illegal hunting of small game) had become a serious criminal offence punishable by transportation to Australia. Exclusive control over the land rather than multi-use was the central feature of freehold as it developed in Britain and spread elsewhere

As far as I can see the landowners made little profit from the forest. The large trees were used for beams in the houses but there seems to have been no market for timber outside the village in 1900. The oak is not highly regarded compared to chestnut (certainly not the quality of the French oak) and the transport out would have been extremely difficult at that time.

The railway at Fabro had its first impact on Castel di Fiori through the provision of a market for the large trees in the form of railway sleepers. This seems to have developed after WW1 perhaps due to improved roads from Fabro to Castel di Fiori and continued through until after WW2 by which time nearly all the big trees had been chopped down and the railways changed to concrete sleepers.

From an early period Italy has had a forest service called the Corpo Forestale. They strictly control the exploitation of the forests. It seems to be one of those bureaucratic organisations that imposed on the landowners what they wished to do anyway. Apparently there was no plan to rotate the forest on a sustainable basis for sleeper production and the end of the industry may have been due to supplies of oak running out as much as the switch to concrete sleeper.

The grazing in the forest would have been extremely poor. Superficially the hills of Castel di Fiori are similar to those near Adelaide where scrub has been converted to rich pastures supporting a large numbers of dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep. The climate here is similar (a little colder in winter) and the rainfall better but the soils are poor and stony in comparison the the Adelaide Hills.

The major difference however is the total lack of pasture improvement. From the 1880s pastures in the Adelaide Hills have been improved using legumes that grow wild in the Mediterranean region (including at Castel di Fiori) and phosphate fertiliser. Stocking rates increased four fold and more with improved pastures. There was no attempt to improve productivity using this simple technology at Castel di Fiori. With free grazing available to all it would have been a very philanthropic landowner who carried out pasture improvement.

Mussolini's agricultural policies

Mussolini had strong links to the forest.

The contadini freely collected from the forest the fallen wood and limbs from felled trees. They tied these twigs into bundles called fasce. "Fasce" is the root of the word fascism. The symbolism used by the fascists implied that the individual twigs were weak but bundled together in the form of a powerful state they became strong. The fasce symbol itself was borrowed from the Etruscans. We do not know whether the Etruscans used it for the same "strength through unity" image but they certainly did not practice what the slogan preached. The Etruscan states found it difficult to stick together and the Etruscan territory was picked off by the Romans city by city.

Hitler followed in Mussolini's footsteps with the inappropriate borrowing of the swastika sign for his Nazis from the religious paintings and sculptures of the Hindus and Buddhists.

Mussolini believed that the mezzadria added to the social stability of the country. He was acting in a long tradition as previous Italian governments had feared large scale migration of peasant farmers to the cities. They had tried to control their movement through the imposition of identity cards and residence permits on Italian citizens. We live with them still today. Other countries are desperately trying to imitate these bureaucratic controls over their citizens in the name of security or tax evasion.

Mussolini introduced laws that made it difficult if not impossible for sharefarmers to buy their farms even if they could somehow scrape together the money. He imposed rules on landowners that prevented the sale of small parcels of land or even individual podere. Landowners had to sell blocks consisting of a number of podere (small farms) to other landowners not to working farmers.

It is hard to understand Mussolini's thinking. In most countries a land owning peasantry is considered the bedrock of social and political conservatism. Land reform in Asia (particularly Japan) provided the peasants with their own land and a solid voting base for the conservative side of politics as well as capital for the landowners to invest in industrial development. Land reform has often been championed by the Left but in fact the Right has often gained electorally.

Mussolini may have thought that he could not convert the contadini who already provided a solid base of support to the Communist Party of Italy in central Italy (Umbria, Tuscany, the Marche and Emilia Romagna). Whatever his reasons the system continued until the 1950s. Without Mussolini's intervention it would probably have faded away rather than collapsed completely and suddenly.

Mechanisation of farming

Mechanisation crept into the farming economy of Castel di Fiori before WW2. Elsewhere in Italy and the world mechanisation came in two stages.

First there was a wider range of animal drawn implements such as seeders, mowers, binders and even in Australia complete horse drawn combine harvesters. That did not happen in Castel di Fiori because of the constraints of the mezzadria. Only the landowners had the capital to buy this equipment. How would they use it? The landlords were not farmers nor did they have paid labour. Would they hire it to their contadini? How would the contadini pay for it? Why would they need these machines as there was already such a surplus of labour?

The threshing and the cleaning of the grain was mechanised. A large stationary machine replaced hand threshing with flails and winnowing in the wind. Presumably the owner charged a fee or more likely a levy on the grain passing through.

The water mill below the abbey at Castel di Fiori was abandoned in the 1930s because of constant problems with the water supply in summer and the grain was taken to Montegiove where it was ground in a flour mill driven by a diesel engine.

Other changes before WW2

There were other changes before WW2 to the society and economy of Castel di Fiori but they had little impact on the life of most of the population who remained tied to a poor livelihood from the land.

Roads improved and the landowners had cars. More traders came to Castel di Fiori, mostly horse drawn carts and traded the contadini's eggs for not just salt but also sugar and clothes.

The telephone came to the village but not to individual houses.

A contadino goes to to Australia (unwillingly). A local contadino from Montegabbione told us about his life as a prisoner of war. He was captured in Libya and transported to India and then Australia where he went to work with two other Italian prisoners on a dairy farm in Queensland. There were 200 cows which made it a very substantial holding by Italian standards and the farm was owned and worked by a man and his wife. Our local contadino found it strange that the owners of so much land and so many cattle would work themselves but things became stranger and stranger. The Italian prisoners lived in the farm house and ate with the farmer. His wife cooked the meals but it was the washing up that the contadino remembered 50 years later. "We had this roster," he said. "Two would wash up after each meal and the farmer himself was on the roster! He did the washing up too!" Besides the washing up roster he remembered the food - the sheer quantity. Having lived on the edge of starvation in Italy he kept reciting the meals of meat, milk, butter and other produce they ate three time a day.

The war-time black market

Sometimes in a quiet corner during one of the festas in Castel di Fiori a pensioner will tell you about the black market. It has become a secret history - something considered a little disreputable but it helped many of the contadini to build a little capital to buy a shop or set themselves up as builders or other tradesmen. I feel the shady reputation of the black market is undeserved.

The price of farm produce has been falling for nearly two hundred years - 192 to be precise. Before then the price (in real term when inflation has been excluded) varied from good years to bad and during periods of war but over the centuries remained remarkably stable. From 1815 at the end of the Napolionic War the price of most farm produce began to fall and has been falling ever since. The only blips in this downward trend have been the wars when farmers have clawed back some of the low prices that have subsidised city living for centuries.

During WW2 the contadini could sell their hams, sausages and other more portable produce for incredible prices and they used the opportunity to build some cash reserves. It must have been a struggle as they did not have a great surplus and towards the end of the war after the Italian surrender the forests were full of escaped Allied prisoners of war and Italian soldiers and youths trying to escape the labour camps of Germany. They were dependent on the goodwill of the contadini who shared their meagre rations with them with no thought of recompense. If they made something on the black market as well - good luck to them!

1950 and the transformation

Italian historians need to find a word to describe the post-1950 period. They have called the 19th century reunification of Italy the "risorgimento" and the period after 1950 as an economic miracle but "economic miracle" does not adequately describe the social, political and economic transformation that took place after 1950.

The first thing to say is that the transformation took everyone by surprise. In retrospect it seems surprising that the feudal relic of the mezzadria persisted into the middle of the 20th century but that was not the view at the time.

In 1950 Memo Corneli added another stable and three rooms to our house. They were solidly constructed from stone and cement with steel beams supporting the first floor. He obviously felt there was a future in the mezzadria if he was prepared to expand so substantially the accommodation for the contadini. In fact the whole of our house was abandoned within fifteen years and the exodus started earlier. Our house was not unique and other landowners did the same.

Factors in the collapse of the mezzadria

The most important factor was migration. As job opportunities became available in the north of Italy, Switzerland and Germany, the Italian contadini voted against the mezzadria in their hundreds of thousands by walking off the land. They had had enough of the poverty and the limitations of the mezzadria and went to work for paid employment as soon as they could. The usual pattern was for a few migrants to open a route to a certain area and then the rest followed. In the case of Castel di Fiori and Montegabbione the preferred choice seems to have been Switzerland although a few went to the Fait factory in Turin.

Most returned when they had made a enough money to establish themselves in a trade but some stayed on and the Swiss registered cars in Montegabbione during the summer are often migrants returning to visit their parents not tourists.

During the 1950s the movement for land reform gathered momentum. Of course it had been an issue in Left wing politics for decades but the new freedom of the Italian Republic allowed open discussion and protest. The contadini, with Communist Party support, organised land occupations to protest against the mezzadria. Many of these took place in Tuscany and probably in Umbria but I have no evidence that they took place in Castel di Fiori. The protests galvanised the Christian Democrat led Government who, with US financial support, introduced a package of land reform measures. The Communist were excluded from formal power in the central government but as Italian politics are not as confrontational as those in Anglo Saxon countries they were able to influence legislation as it progressed through parliament.

Generally one can say the the land reform program was too little too late. It addressed the problems of the past and failed to anticipate any of the future changes.

Land reform comes to central Italy

The legislative changes outlawed the mezzadria system. It was no longer legal to enter sharefarming agreements. It also made renting land extremely difficult. If the land was rented or even occupied for ten years the occupier could claim it in the court.

Part of our farm passed out of the hands of the Corneli family in this way. After the war Memo Corneli rented or lent a piece of land to a soldier from his unit who had been wounded when they both fought together in Albania. The farmer established our olive grove and after ten year lodged a claim for the land in the court. He was awarded half by the court which drew a strange boundary through the middle of the grove. When he died in the 1990s we purchased his share from his widow and restored the grove to its original shape.

The rights of occupiers to claim land after ten years effectively made renting too dangerous for landowners. One friend in a nearby village rented his vineyard to a neighbour for periods of nine years broken by a one year period when the vineyard was in effect abandoned. The vines were not pruned or picked. The land was not cultivated. He took these extreme measure to ensure that the tenant could not claim ten years of continuous occupancy.

On the ground the Italian Government used compulsory purchase orders to acquire land and distribute it to sharefarmers. It was here that the policy makers demonstrated their complete lack of understanding of farming and the changes that were taking place,

The contadini were poor. Obviously part of that poverty was due to the fact that half their output went to the landowner. They were also poor because the farms were too small and the land too poor. In fact landowners on better land such as the Chiana valley below Castel di Fiori had already moved to a system of paid labour rather than sharefarming to maximise their profits. It was the low quality land that remained in the mezzadria system.

Having purchased the land the Government distributed it to the contadini. As the previous landowner no longer took half of the output of the new farms the policy makers decided they could establish additional farms "on the landowners share." In other words lock the contadini into poverty again. To be fair the same mistake has been made by virtually every land reform program in the world. The aim has been to settle as many farmers as possible and some landless labourer as well not to establish profitable farms. Libya has been a honourable exception. Their land reform established profitable farms.

Perhaps they thought that modern farming techniques would lift yields to such a degree that farmers would have a reasonable yield. If they had actually visited the farms they would have realised modern farming methods could not be applied and the fields were too small and too difficult to work with machines.

Land reform did not come to Castel di Fiori but I can imagine what a disaster it would have been if our farm, Podere valle Pulcini, which was struggling to support three families had been divided and had to support six. They would not have paid half the output to the landowner but they would starved just the same.

The whole land reform program became irrelevant as the contadini exodus gathered pace and they left for the industrial centres of the north faster than they could be provided with their own farms.

The effective prohibition on renting blocked any change to the farming systems. While cereal farming on such a small scale as Podere valle Pulcini was not feasible the small farms could have been merged into larger sheep farms. Sardinians made this change but they were forced to buy the land. The pace of change was limited to the funds they could raise. If the landowners (who had no sheep keeping skills) had been able to rent the land to the Sardinian shepherds the pace of change would have been greater.

Social and political change in the 1950's.

The generation growing up in the 1950s and 1960s were the "transformation" people. The first public school was built in Castel di Fiori in the 1950s but within little more than a decade it had to be closed because there were too few children. After that the remaining children went by bus to Montegabbione.

The population of the village was perhaps 350 in 1950. I have not researched the decade by decade figures but within a decade or so most of the farm houses were deserted or inhabited by a few semiretired contadini. When we arrived in 1990 the permanent population had collapse to a mere 12. It has now begun to rise again but is still less than 20 with another 20 or 30 people living here in summer.

The transformation of this generation was extraordinary. They were born into a world that was isolated from the rest of Italy and where their expectations were to become a contadino or contadina (male and female sharefarmer) living in poverty. They would have received little education, no public health care nor a pension on retirement.

It does not look much like a power house? The abandoned school house that played a short but important part in transforming the 1950s generation.

In fact they went to school, took up jobs in a wide range of skilled and semi-skilled areas, migrated to Switzerland, returned and set up small businesses and bought their own houses. Their children are now continuing on the same path and acquiring even more skills and university degrees.

One thing they showed little interest in was farming. Their upbringing seemed to have burnt deeply into their psyche and very few bought small farms. Some having made a success as builders or other skilled occupations and are now buying olive groves to run as a hobby in their retirement.

The new Italian Republic gave them the vote (both men and women) for the first time in the 1950s and they continued to provide solid support to the Communist Party of Italy. The Party seems to have evolved effortlessly with its members who had changed in a few decades from poor landless sharefamers into successful small business people or employees in government administration. The fact they voted Communist meant they were excluded from national power until the collapse of the first republic but they could establish their own local and regional governments.

What happened to the landowners? They were not farmers but collectors of their share of the farm produce. When the share farmers left they no longer had an income. Some of them went bankrupt. They could not cope with the change and could not understand that their asset rich status was not generating a significant income. Finallt debt overwhelmed them and their land was sold. Others took up a profession as a source of income. Our landowner, Memo Corneli, adapted to a more frugal way of life, harvested the forests for a cash income and made sure that his children were qualified to earn an income from a profession.

Womens' lives changed even more.

The 1950's was the beginning of the transformation of the lives of the contadini but for women the liberation was even greater.

The new domestic appliances provided them with some escape from domestic chores. They learnt to drive cars. They went to school. They took jobs in the towns

The little world of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi. First published in English 1948 Don Camillo was the fictional village priest in "Brescello" in the Po valley and Guareschi writes a number of amusing tales of his sparring matches - they do not qualify as battles - with the Communist mayor. In fact there are three major protagonists in the stories - God who always wins, Don Camillo his agent who also wins but has to accept humiliation on the path to victory and the Communist mayor who is granted a few minor victories to ensure the appearance of balance. The portrait of the mayor is one of being in office but not in power and therefore seeking reassurance from the real centre of power represented by Don Camillo. I remember enjoying the book and the various sequels as a child but had forgotten them until I began to read some of the modern books on Italy by English speaking writers. Everyone with pretensions to writing or journalism who passes through Italy seems to be compelled to write of their experiences and interpret Italian life for an avid English speaking audience. The Don Camillo books seem to have been enormously popular and had an extraordinary influence on many of these writers who use them as their source material for life in rural Italy. I don't know how representative the books were in 1948 - they were certainly more popular with foreigners than Italians as I have not yet found an Italian who has even heard of them - but things have moved on since then. Firstly Don Camillo rarely exists in rural Italy. Castel di Fiori no longer has a village priest. The situation is not much better in our main centre at Montegabbione where a west African priest serves the community as well as all the surrounding villages. The monasteries and convents have collapsed as there are so few recruits to their way of life. The Communist (now ex-communist Democratic Party of the Left) mayor exercises his power with a quiet restraint (a complete contrast to the mayor in the Don Camillo books) that indicates a complete faith in his own authority. There is no hostility towards the church. In fact it is a vital part of the local cultural heritage and is supported by the former communists through the local administration. Personally they take part in church ceremonies (hatched, matched and dispatched) and as a local council help restore the churches and chapels in the area. They do not seek reassurance from the church. God and Don Camillo may have won all the sparring matches in Brescello but over the last sixty years they have lost all the battles in Italy. Italy now has contraception, divorce and abortion - all battle fronts that the church lost decisively. Young couples now live together before marriage as a matter of course. Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe.

The Age of Erosion - modern farming after 1950

Italy has made a poor transition to the second farming epoch. The first epoch was from the late Neolithic to 1950 (1950 in Castel di Fiori but earlier in other parts of Italy). It was a period when farming was generally energy self-sufficient. Some virtual energy was imported in the form of metal and other products but the farming system was reliant on home grown energy for power (ploughing etc) and fertiliser.

The second farming epoch occurred when fossil fuels became cheap and readily available Farming was no longer restrained by the need to grow its own energy and could indulge in the wasteful consumption of energy supported by high prices paid to farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy.

It was no longer necessary to have rotations to provide fertility to the soil. Instead fertility could be purchased in a bag in the form of urea or some other nitrogen fertiliser. These fertilisers consumed large amounts of energy in their production. Cereal crops could be grown year after year with fertilisers instead of organic matter being returned to the soil.

Agricultural subsidies provided the funds for farmers to purchase monstrous tractors and cheap fuel allowed them to be used to plough deeper and deeper. The combination of excessive cultivation and low organic matter in the soil provided the ingredients for an explosive increase in soil erosion.

Measuring erosion in the Coca Cola age

Graeme Barker, the author of the book on prehistoric farming mentioned in Chapter 1, carried out some archaeological excavations near Gubbio in northern Umbria. Among other important finds he was able to identify the layers of sediment over the site. The sediment came from the erosion of the fields surrounding the settlement. Over the 1500 years before 1950 the site was covered with 20 to 30 cm of sediment from the erosion of the nearby field. The shorter period of Roman farming (700 years or so) before 450 AD deposited a slightly deeper layer of erosion silt indicating more cultivation of cereals, shorter rotations and less pasture for livestock.

The real shock was the post-1950 layer marked by Coca Cola shards and other modern rubbish. The post-1950 layer was 2 metres deep! This was almost certainly more than the erosion that took place during the whole of the first farming epoch dating from the late Neolithic to 1950. The Gubbio results are not some freak event. Anyone travelling in the Italian countryside can see that erosion is taking place at an alarming rate.

Graeme Barker's work was carried out in the late 1980s. Extrapolating the erosion layer to the present time would indicate that there is now a layer more than three metres deep from runoff of soil from the surrounding fields. There have been no improvements in farming methods to provide any hope that erosion in reducing.

Erosion at Castel di Fiori

Castel di Fiori has avoided the effect of the Age of Erosion through good luck rather than good farming. The erodible land has been abandoned for arable farming or has been planted to olives and more recently timber plantation which are not cultivated.

The cereal farming that remains at Castel di Fiori is carried out on the flood plains of the creeks that are too flat for water to flow at a speed that will carry soil. There is plenty of land near Montegabbione that has a sufficient slope and is being poorly farmed to create erosion that is as bad as the rest of Umbria and Tuscany.

Biofuels

The growing awareness of global warming and the role of fossil carbon fuels in the post-2000 period gave me a brief glimmer of hope that the Age of Erosion might end. If farmers were encouraged to grow legume pastures which produce their own nitrogen as well as a surplus for the following cereal crop they could dispense with the energy-rich fertiliser in a bag.

If tractor fuel was taxed like other fuels farmers would have to sell their big toys and move to more energy efficient and less destructive cultivation techniques.

It was all so simple and logical but it was not to be.

Instead the policy makers and the chemical companies have developed a complex strategy that keeps them in business and kicks the Age of Erosion into an even higher gear. Farmers are to be encouraged to grow more crops for the production of biofuels. That means even more cultivation, more fertiliser and more erosion.

The biofuels need to be processed into a useable form in another generation of chemical factories (no doubt subsidised by the long suffering European taxpayer). The fuel can then be fed back to old factories to produce nitrogen fertiliser to be used on the old and new crops alike. Farmer will still be supplied with cheap fuel for their grossly extravagant tractors and everyone will think that they are saving the planet!

The alternative of using legumes to produce the nitrogen in the field itself without any intervention by the farmer is not on the agenda. The idea of taxing farm fuel into efficiency is considered too politically dangerous in spite of the fact that farmers represent a mere 2% of the population. The Age of Erosion seems to have a lot of life in it still.

After 2000

The dramatic fall in the population of Castel di Fiori took place in the period 1950 to 1965. A few of the abandoned house were purchased by people from Rome to use as summer holiday retreats. The permanent population continued to fall as after 1965 the retired sharefarmers died.

In 1990 we purchased Podere valle Pulcini, restored it and lived in it from 1991. It was one of the first houses outside the village to be restored. At the time friends predicted that Castel di Fiori would die. Since 2000 most of the remaining abandoned houses inside and outside the village have been restored and about half are used by permanent residents and half by summer visitors. The population has not returned to the 350 in 1900 but is creeping up from 12 in 1990 to perhaps 15 to 18. The summer population is two or three time that.

This reversal in the population decline and restoration of all the abandoned houses in the village encouraged a developer to purchase about half a hectare of building land and get permission to build two rows of tiny appartments. Something like 18 tiny dog boxes in total. The effect would have been disasterous. Castel di Fiori has a mixture of permanent residents, locals, Italians from elsewhere in Italy and foreigners who manage to rub along in a reasonably harmonious fashion. Like any small village there are factions and disputes but the proposed development would have doubled the population in a single hit. The new population would all be "summer people" with no commitment to Castel di Fiori. We would become a summer holiday camp. We have absorbed summer people in the past but this would be completely different as they would be half the population and all in the space of a few years.The pro- development factions in the village (very much a minority) claimed that the development would provide jobs for the youth but they have greater ambitions than cleaning toilets for six weeks in summer and are mostly training for better jobs than cleaners.

Unfortunately the planning authorities in the local council chose not to take into account the environmental or social impact. If Montegabbione had a project for 2000 additional inhabitants it would not have slipped under the radar as did an additional 36 for Castel di Fiori. Water, electricity, road access, sewerage all had to double but this was never considered.

Every cloud has a silver lining and the Great Crunch of 2008 has provided a reprieve for Castel di Fiori as the developers put their plans on hold. Even now in 2010 the olive grove has not been bulldozed and hopefully the collapse in the housing market will continue long enough to kill the project completely. Perhaps the world that emerges after the recession will not be so wasteful and tiny country appartments used for a few weeks in summer will no longer be saleable. We can only hope.

One of the unfortunate side-effects of the building proposal has been the deepening of factional tensions in the village. The pro-faction is keen to promote the image of Castel di Fiori and develop its "brand recognition". The anti-faction see this as encouraging the developers and doing their promotion work for them. It is too late to get Castel di Fiori off the map but we should keep as low a profile as possible.