“THE SAFEGUARDING OF AGRICULTURE IS MORE ATTENTIVE THAN THAT OF MONUMENTS. WINE IS BETTER TODAY THAN FIFTY YEARS AGO”. WINENEWS INTERVIEWS VITTORIO SGARBI

“Culture and agriculture have a tight link and coincide in certain senses, in fact, the safeguarding of agriculture and its products is higher and more attentive than the safeguarding of monuments”. This was the declaration made by Vittorio Sgarbi, one of the most important and controversial art critics, politicians, and writers in Italy today, when asked in a recent interview by WineNews whether the definition of “art” is exaggerated in reference to agriculture and the food and wine that it produces.

According to Sgarbi, it is completely appropriate to say “art” in reference to agriculture and its products because, “That which we are conserving today, in the past twenty years, is a patrimony that risks being lost, that of local traditions, gastronomic traditions, and the culture of production”.
It is a conservation, it should be noted, that united with innovation, has brought about an improvement in agriculture. “From this point of view” – continued Sgarbi – “if one looks at how wine was 50 years ago and how it is now, one can say everything was better before, but wine is better today”.

But where is the true connecting point between food and art?
“In the substantial connection between the creativity of art and creative efforts, but also the safeguarding of the originality of the values that are the opposite of serial, globalized production, or rather, fast food. And the Slow Food [organization] that has been consecrated by Carlo Petrini is, in reality, a way to safeguard and preserve a patrimony that is precisely a cultural patrimony”.