+10 Oltre Mercato
Oltre Mercato
Oltre Mercato
Oltre Mercato
Oltre Mercato
Oltre Mercato
Oltre Mercato
Oltre Mercato
Oltre Mercato
Oltre Mercato
PESARO, Italy—On an average summer Saturday in a typical Italian town, dozens of tents sprawl out on a long asphalt road. Crowds of customers gather around vendors to form a familiar sight, a farmer’s market. However, each Thursday in the beach town of Pesaro, five tents gradually appear on a small browning field beside a sidewalk. There are some of the customary signs—smells of fresh bread and pastries, sights of vibrant fruits and vegetables, and sounds of the chatter and laughter among vendors and customers. But then you discover the quirky personalities, the funny hats and vintage clothes of the vendors, and the earnest signs of authenticity such as hand painted leaves and flowers on the labels of products for sale. The realization hits that this is not a regular farmer’s market. This is Oltre Mercato.
It’s not just the petite nature of the market or the offbeat personalities that puts the “Oltre” in Oltre Mercato. (Oltre means “other” or “beyond.”) It’s the actual philosophy of the market. Oltre Mercato fuels itself on supporting local and homegrown food while going against the norms of society, with members constantly giving to each other and being ecologically conscious in how they prepare their produce.
“This is a culture that cares about the weakest side of society both in a sense of production and in a sense of general well-being,” said Michele Romani, 48-year-old vegetable vendor at Oltre Mercato.
“This movement is about thinking that we should have the right to do something…even if it is not legal.”
These individuals believe they’re part of something bigger than themselves, and they will go to risky lengths to fight for what they believe in. Tommaso Lombardi, 34-year-old beekeeper and legislative coordinator for Oltre Mercato describes how his passion drives his group. “This movement is about thinking that we should have the right to do something, so we are going to do it,” he said. “Even if it is not legal, we are going to do it if we feel it is right. For example, we create new market squares to sell products and this is not legal because you have to have a permit, but we sell food here anyway without a permit.”
Three years ago, Oltre Mercato was started by a larger national movement called Genuino Clandestino. Oltre Mercato is one of 24 local markets associated with Genuino Clandestino. These local markets range from Milan to more southern parts of Italy like Sicily.
The national Clandestine movement, meaning underground and secretive, began in 2010. Lombardi said this movement started as a revolt against Italian legislation that forced producers of self-made and locally grown food to deal with the same obstacles and regulations as food produced by big industries. For example, small-farmers must file their taxes with the Chamber of Commerce, but they don’t think this should apply to them because they’re selling directly to a final consumer instead of going through layers of retail consumers as big industrial food companies do. Additionally, small farmers have to pay taxes like their big industry counterparts do, but since they live on their own land, and don’t make the same amount of profit that big industries do, it is extremely difficult for them to afford this and keep their business afloat.
This legislation also requires that small farmers carry out the same health and sanitation regulations as industrial agriculture, Lombardi explained. For example, such simple practices of killing and burying one’s cattle must be done outside the property of the small farmer, but these small farmers believe their businesses are small and sanitary enough that they don’t have to go through this extra precaution.
According to Lombardi, Genuino Clandestino participants not only feel betrayed by Italian law, they also don’t agree with the way big industries operate. Lombardi said that in order to go against the way industrial agriculture operates in today’s society, this community of Clandestines thrives on the concept of self-determination, meaning they provide for themselves and make their own way of life, disregarding societal norms.
“We put ourselves in the debate of self-organization because we think that Oltre Mercato and the other markets provide a place where we have to provide our own food and provide for ourselves,” said Lombardi. “We are on the complete opposite side from what is normal, which is being controlled and organized by the power of the higher-ups in society.”
“We have this method of a ‘time bank,’ where we give our time to each other.”
While the participants in the Clandestine movement want to separate themselves from main-stream society by being different and having their own kinds of markets, they also want to continue to strengthen their bonds with each other. They do this by adopting the method of mutualism, which means they give to each other and treat each other in a way that benefits all parties.
“Something that we really are focusing on right now is this method of doing whatever we can for each other,” Lomabardi said. “We have our own registry and we have this method of a ‘time bank,’ where we give our time to each other. Lombardi explained that this time is not limited to just work hours. It could be time spent helping people in other ways, such as watching other people’s children or helping someone plan a party. The overall point, Lombardi said, is to do something for each person and in the end, “It is all equal.”
While this concept might seem quite relaxed, Lombardi said, it’s actually really regulated. For example, the local market in Bologna, CampiAperti (meaning open fields) prints its own money to keep track of members’ favors to each other.
Guilia Maschera, 37, who is an herb producer and vendor at Oltre Mercato feels the most important part of the philosophy of the Clandestine movement is the bond the customers and vendors establish with each other. “No one feels alone because there is so much help,” Maschera said as her one-year old son passed by in a stroller pushed by one of the other community members. “The market is a place where you can establish a direct communication with the customers.”
Daniela Fontanor, 52-year-old Pesaro native, has been shopping at Oltre Mercato ever since it opened three years ago. She said that she buys everything from toilet paper to wine at Oltre Mercato. She said this relationship between the vendors and customers is one of the reasons she shops here. “They are quality people here,” Fontanor said. “Everyone is familiar with each other. I respect their thinking, and also the products are good prices for the quality you are getting.”
The idea of direct communication and relationships with the customers is something of great importance to Maschera and her partner, Marco Triche. “Here in Italy and everywhere in the world, there is this way of thinking that if you write that you only prepare natural products, this is true, but in reality, it is not true,” said Triche. “So, in this kind of market everybody knows everybody, so we know how everybody produces their product.”
Though Maschera is reserved and nervous, she comes to life when she talks about the importance of this relationship with her customers. “Yes,” she said, enthusiastically chiming in. “There is a quality of control. The clients cannot actually check the quality, but they know it is good because we all know each other.”
On a recent Thursday in June, there was a constant flow of customers buying produce from Romani. All that could be heard was his playful, contagious laugh as he bagged his produce to be given to his customers. Between selling, Romani explained that quality of control through ensuring the customers are getting healthy and chemical-free produce is a big theme of Oltre Mercato. He, like Maschera, feels it’s a moral obligation to his customers and the earth to sell chemical-free food. “I would never poison the soil,” Romani said sternly. “Apart from being certified as an all-natural producer, I first care about the guarantee of the products for my customers.”
Quality of control isn’t the only thing these individuals are trying to achieve. “The main point of the Clandestine movement is to be able to criticize society through food,” Lombardi said. “Through food we want to be able to approach all kinds of political and economic topics. We are able to get together and turn something that is usually strictly about culture into something political or environmental.”
Lombardi can talk passionately about this movement for hours. He tells of an Italian woman who lived in Kurdistan, where in the midst of a revolution the farmers organized themselves through the same concept of assembly as Genuiono Clandestino. These Kurdistan farmers have their own community lands that they share with everyone involved. “We are looking forward to maybe doing the same thing and having our own community lands, which is something we used to have way back in Italy,” Lombardi said optimistically. “Eventually we want to turn this into an international movement.”
Translation of interviews and other language assistance by University of Urbino students Francesa Massari, Bianca Sartini, Tonia Perreca, and Luca Cocozza.
Video by Carley Welch & Gianna Di Gregorio
