As a result of climate change, olive cultivation in Italy has moved close to the Alps; in the Po Valley, about half of the national production of tomatoes for preserves and durum wheat for pasta is cultivated; vineyards have even reached the peaks; and in the south, avocado, mango, and banana production is booming. COLDIRETTI's examination of the Copernicus data reveals that 2022 was the second warmest year ever recorded in Europe and the hottest year ever in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. According to COLDIRETTI's analyses of the ISAC CNR database, which records temperatures since 1800, the average temperature in Italy increased by 1.15 degrees and precipitation decreased by 30 percent compared to the historical average over the period 1991-2020. The propensity to overheat in Italy, where the ranking of the warmest years of the previous two centuries is focused on the last decade and includes, in the order following 2022, 2018, 2015, 2014, 2019, and 2020, is hence emphasized, according to COLDIRETTI. The outcome is a major alteration in the environment, the distribution and seasonality of crops, and the defining qualities of Italy's most iconic goods. There has been a major movement over time in the typical cultivation region of some crops, such as the olive tree, which has now arrived in the Alps. It is in reality in the province of Sondrio, north of the 46th parallel, which is the northernmost boundary of Italian olive oil. In the last decade, the cultivation of olive trees on the sunniest hills of the Valtellina mountains has increased from zero to over ten thousand plants, covering almost thirty thousand square meters of ground. The temperature of Italian wine has risen by one degree over the last three decades, but the harvest has moved forward by a month compared to the typical month of September, defying the proverb "fill the kitchen in August and the cellar in September".
|