L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano W h e n p e o - p l e h e a r t h e e x p r e s - s i o n Slow Food Presìdi, they often picture a label or a logo a t t a c h e d t o a p r o d u c t . I n practice, however, Presìdi are something much more con- crete: they are groups of peo- ple working together to keep specific foods from disap- pearing, along with the land- scapes, skills, and communi- ties that make those foods possible. In Italy, they have become one of the most con- v i n c i n g e x p r e s s i o n s o f a M a d e i n I t a l y b u i l t o n protection rather than scale and trends. The Presìdi project was launched by Slow Food at the end of the 1990s, between 1999 and 2000, as a response to a growing and very real problem: the e r o s i o n o f food biodiversity. Indus- trial agriculture, standardized production, and global sup- p l y c h a i n s w e r e s t e a d i l y pushing many local foods to the margins and, while some survived in tiny quantities, others sadly existed only in the memories of older pro- ducers. Slow Food's answer was to help them remain part of everyday life by restoring value to their production. Each Presidio begins with a p r o d u c t a t r i s k , l i k e a n ancient animal breed, a plant variety adapted to a very spe- c i f i c e n v i r o n m e n t , o r a processed food made using methods that no longer fit industrial logic. All of them have something in common: their fragility. They are often hard to produce, poorly suit- e d t o m a s s m a r k e t s , a n d d e p e n d e n t o n k n o w l e d g e that can disappear quickly if it is no longer practiced. For this reason, Presìdi operate at ground level, with Slow Food working directly with p r o d u c e r s , s t a r t i n g w i t h research in the field and a series of meetings that lead to the creation of a Presidio community. Together, they define a production protocol: a s h a r e d d o c u m e n t t h a t i d e n t i f i e s t h e p r o d u c t i o n area, reconstructs the history of the product, and sets out clear guidelines for how it should be grown, raised, or processed. One of the most distinc- tive aspects of Presìdi is the way they are presented to the public, with a narrative label that explains where the prod- uct comes from, how it is made, and why it matters so that consumers know that choosing a Presidio product is not only a matter of taste, but also a way of supporting b i o d i v e r s i t y , s m a l l - s c a l e economies, and specialized skills. The Presidio logo itself is tightly regulated and can only be used by produc- ers who respect the agreed protocol, which helps pre- vent it from becoming an empty brand. W h a t P r e s ì d i p r o t e c t operates on several levels, beginning with biodiversity in a literal sense, by keeping rare breeds and local vari- eties in active production. T h e n , t h e y s a f e g u a r d t h e specific know-how associat- ed with certain products and environments, much of it passed down through prac- tice and, therefore, attached t o p e o p l e ' s m e m o r y a n d h a b i t s . A n d t h e y s u p p o r t rural communities by giving producers visibility and a fairer position in the market. In this sense, it is correct to say that Presìdi are as much a b o u t p e o p l e a n d t h e i r knowledge as they are about food. I n I t a l y , t h e P r e s ì d i approach felt natural straight away, because of how Italian food culture is built on local traditions and distinctions, often between places only a few kilometers apart. Presìdi actively reflect this reality because, rather than aiming at standardizing excellence, they want to protect differ- ence. Today, the Presìdi net- work stretches across hun- dreds of projects worldwide, but Italy remains its histori- cal and symbolic heart. If anything, their significance is clearer now than it was at the beginning: Presìdi show, in very practical terms, that protecting tradition does not mean locking it in the past, but keeping it alive through continued production, adap- tation, and economic sustain- ability. In a food system increas- ingly driven by speed and uniformity, Slow Food Presì- di offer a different perspec- tive: they suggest that value can still be built around slow- ness, specificity, and care, and that Made in Italy is not only about exporting flavors, but about sustaining the eco- logical, cultural, and human systems that produce them. T h e n a m e o f A l e s s a n d r o C r u t o r a r e l y comes up when we talk about the electric light bulb: that story i s u s u a l l y t o l d t h r o u g h Thomas Edison alone. And y e t , i n t h e e a r l y y e a r s o f e l e c t r i c l i g h t i n g , C r u t o ' s work was serious enough to attract international atten- tion and, for a time, to rival Edison's own solutions. Cruto was born in 1847 in Piossasco, near Turin, and h i s e a r l y e x p e r i m e n t s focused on carbon, not elec- tricity. He was driven by an a m b i t i o u s g o a l : c r e a t i n g synthetic diamonds. That project eventually failed, but it left him with an unusually deep understanding of car- bon purity and structure. When incandescent lighting began to develop in the late n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y , t h a t knowledge turned out to be crucial. The idea that Cruto's light b u l b " c a m e o n b e f o r e Edison's" is often repeated, but it's a bit more complicat- ed than that; Edison's 1879 bulb was the first to be suc- cessfully patented and mar- keted as part of a complete electrical system, but Cruto was working along a differ- ent technical path, based on the development of carbon filaments using a chemical deposition process that pro- d u c e d a n e x t r e m e l y p u r e form of graphite. The result was a lamp that emitted a whiter, steadier light and, in many cases, lasted longer than the early Edison bulbs. In 1882, Cruto presented his lamps at the Munich E l e c t r i c a l E x h i b i t i o n , where they were noted for their brightness and clarity. Just a few years later, pro- duction began in Alpignano, outside Turin, where a fac- t o r y m a n u f a c t u r e d C r u t o lamps for international mar- kets. One of the most strik- i n g e p i s o d e s i n C r u t o ' s career came in 1884, when his lamps were used to light P i a z z a C a r l o F e l i c e i n Turin: for a brief moment, an Italian-made bulb illumi- nated a major public space at the forefront of modern electrification. Cruto did not rewrite the global narrative of electric l i g h t , w e a l l k n o w t h a t Edison's system ultimately p r e v a i l e d . B u t h i s s t o r y reminds us that innovation rarely belongs to a single n a m e … T h a t ' s w h y w e should remember that in the c r o w d e d , e x p e r i m e n t a l world of early electricity, Italy produced an inventor w h o s e s o l u t i o n w o r k e d – and worked well – even if h i s t o r y l a t e r d i m m e d h i s light. Cruto discovered that carbon filaments could create light while trying to make syn- thetic diamonds (Image created with Illustrator/AI) Alessandro Cruto: a forgotten Italian chapter in the history of the light bulb Slow Food Presìdi: protecting what Made in Italy is really made of A loaf of traditional artisanal bread. Many types of bread are protected by a Presidio Slow Food, including, for instance, the potato bread of Garfagnana and the traditional bread of Alta Murgia (Photo: Oleksiy Boyko/Dreamstime) IMPRESA ITALIA MADE IN ITALY TOP BRANDS BUSINESS & ECONOMY

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