On the Land of Fires everything and more has already been said.

This is a territory, where all sorts of waste has been buried, even and above all toxic waste, coming from all over Europe, in 90s, scandal came to light only at the beginning of the new millennium and described in the book ‘Gomorra’ by Roberto Saviano(2006) trailed into 52 languages, selling more than 10million copies worldwide. In short, an international shame.

What little is talked about instead is that, despite the most adverse forecasts there are those who do not give up, those who believe in it and take on their shoulders and in their arms the will to counter everything that has happened in recent decades in the legendary Campania Felix.

They are the so-called ‘Resistant Farmers’. Vincenzo Egizio is one of them.

Vincenzo is 47 years old, he was studying biology, then 17 years ago he decided to continue the family tradition, to be a farmer. The strength was found in the fields of his family from generations. So I was sure nothing toxic could be buried under that land; the science has proved him right: the aqua is not polluted, local health authorities periodically carry out checks; the winds that blow both from the land and from the sea do not push the dust released by the waste-to-energy plant on his fields, studies of the air have shown it. The Acerra waste-to-energy is far  km 5.6 from the main field where Vincenzo grows vegetables in a natural way.

The Acerra waste-to-energy plant is a non-hazardous waste treatment plant for the valorization of the energy contained therein. Designed and built with the best available technologies to ensure maximum environmental protection, it is one of the most important and state-of-the-art plants in Europe.

Vincenzo works 365 days a year, works the land so that the dream can became reality day after day, harvest after harvest. In the fields he works with his aunt Rose; she teaches him the ancient secrets of sowing and pruning.

For him it is not just an ethical question but a reason for indigenous pride to safeguard native species such as the Vesuvius apricots, the Centogiorni pea, the ‘Papaccelle’ a small and curly pepper, the little tomato of ‘Piennolo’ and so on.

He is not in the supply chain but are part of initiatives, markets, fairs of the Slow Food circuit; he works in small distribution with private people, with restaurants and similar, which allow him to reduce waste and control production.

He works with love and attention to the vegetables crop rotation. No chemicals, no pesticides, no herbicides. Vincenzo’s products are natural with all that this entails.Vincenzo believes in the diversity of his territory by cultivation native products, some of which were about to disappear. It is the dream he shares daily with his whole family: with his wife Violetta who takes care of the administrative part of the farm and with his children, with the hope that as they grow up they will be able to understand the value of immense work done to protect the health and the environment.