The Pizza Connection: Fighting The Mafia Through Food
In recent years, the effort to bring the Mafia under control in Sicily has spilled over into the world of food. Today a movement of small organic agricultural cooperatives has sprung up across the island to farm land once confiscated by the Mafia and bring these goods to a global market.
Libera Terra means free land, or land free from Mafia. A cooperative of farmers and other producers working under this banner creates organic olive oil, wine, pasta, grains and more and provides Mafia-free jobs in a country with staggering unemployment, deep-seated corruption and a rich kitchen tradition.
"It's very difficult to buy something to eat here in Sicily and be sure that it has nothing to do with the Mafia," says Gabrielle Mastrilli. "When you eat food with the Libera Terra label, you are sure that the product and the worker, they don't have anything to do with the Mafia."
Mastrilli is a photographer and writer who, like so many of the young people of the island, had left to find work, specifically Mafia-free work. His family has a long history in organizing Sicilian agriculture against the Mafia's stronghold on wages, working conditions and employment in the fields. With the birth of Libera Terra, Gabriele has recently returned to the island to promote the cooperatives.
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