L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 30 L'Italo-Americano C was born and I grew up in one of the most picture- sque corners of rural Italy. Up north, tucked away at the feet of the Alps, hills were my childhood home, mountains the first thing I'd see in the morning when opening my w i n d o w s . I w a s r a i s e d t o respect the land, because she feeds us, and to love and respect animals, because they are creatures, just like we are. Decades have passed, but the teachings of those early years of my life, the values instilled in me back then, remain strong: I love ani- mals, I champion their rights, I do firmly believe they do deserve the same respect and love most consider adequate only for humans, so deciding to first reduce and then enti- rely cut meat and fish from my diet was a natural choice, which I don't regret one bit. I am not vegan, I still eat c h e e s e . I a m j u s t c a r e f u l about what I buy, I make sure stuff is organic and I buy from producers I know personally as much as I can — another perk of country life: you can see how the cows live. Yes, because there are farmers out there who do care about their animals, too: n o t e v e r y o n e f o c u s e s o n quantity and low prices to appease the masses, not everyone puts profit above the well being of the animals. Even more crucially in an economic context, many far- mers understood that profit and quality can go hand in hand with respect of animals' lives and welfare. This is very much the way the Palmieri family see things: for more than a cen- tury, they have been running Tenuta Vannulo, a five hundred acres' estate not far f r o m N a p l e s , r i g h t a t t h e heart of the area of produc- t i o n f o r m o z z a r e l l a d i bufala campana, and one of Italy's main organic dairy farms. They rise water buf- falos — they have 600 at the moment — and use their pre- cious milk not only to make delicious, rigorously hand made mozzarellas, but also other delicacies. "Water buf- falos," Stefania De Luca — one of the farm's tour guides with whom we had the plea- sure to chat — explains to L'Italo-Americano "origi- nally came from India, but have been here since Roman times. It's a perfect habitat for them: climate and forage make their milk of excellent quality." Tenuta Vannulo is fully cruelty-free: their animals are treated like friends, not exploited and this is not only good for the buffalos, but also for products' quality. The Palmieris firmly believe that, when the animals are treated right, their milk is better and so are the products made with it; if you consider that the farm makes about 400 kg of buffalo mozzarella every day and that every ounce of it is sold by noon, within 2 and 1/2 hours of their farm store opening to customers, it seems they got it right. "We started producing mozzarella in 1988," says S t e f a n i a , " a n d w e n t f u l l y organic in 1996." "We wanted to be different from the rest. We wanted to f o c u s o n q u a l i t y a n d n o t quantity. And we love our animals, " Stefania continues. Their well-being and happi- ness is truly key on the farm, where everything is centered on the animals, and each buf- falo is not simply treated with respect and love, but pampe- red: "Our animals' well-being FRANCESCA BEZZONE Tenuta Vannulo produces 400 kg of mozzarella di bufala campana a day, and it's all organic and handmade (Photo courtesy of Tenuta Vannulo/ Michele Calogero) Continued to page 32 Respect nature and love animals: the secret of Tenuta Vannulo's amazing mozzarellas LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE

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