Pizza, a Unesco heritage, was proclaimed as such because it “represents Italy throughout the world.” The art of pizza elevates a culinary tradition to a cultural expression, and spares us from having it appropriated by the Americans. But it is also worth a great deal, economically.
Let us avoid the Meucci effect — the one whereby we invent something and then have it appropriated by whoever commercialises it (as happened with the telephone and Bell). And let us protect a sector with 150,000 workers in Italy, a turnover of 12 billion euros here and at least over 60 worldwide. This is also why the candidacy of pizza — more precisely, the "art of Neapolitan pizza makers" — was the most popularly supported candidacy in the history of Unesco. The approval of pizza as a Unesco heritage came from the Committee meeting in Jeju, South Korea, from 4 to 8 December, following a lengthy review process for inscription on the intangible heritage list, which proclaimed it unanimously.
The first victory of the #pizzaUnesco petition, conceived by former Agriculture Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, had already come on 26 March 2015. A first result that carried the scent of history: the art of Neapolitan pizza makers secured Italy's candidacy for inscription on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The jewel of Campanian tradition, chosen by the Italian Commission for Unesco, could thus begin the official process towards the prestigious international recognition. The news travelled around the world, featured on all Italian news broadcasts, and appeared on international websites and in newspapers. The decision, however, stalled and the examination of the candidacy came to a halt. The mobilisation, on the other hand, continued.
On 4 March 2016, the Italian government tried again and decided that "The art of Neapolitan pizza makers" would be Italy's sole candidacy on the Unesco World Heritage list. The decision was taken unanimously by the Italian National Commission for Unesco, on the proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture and with the support of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Education, the Environment and the Economy. It was chosen because it "represents Italy throughout the world."
The dossier was submitted to Unesco and thereby began a lengthy and complex negotiation involving more than 200 countries, "especially because Unesco has never before inscribed a tradition connected to food production," as observed by the dossier's author Pierluigi Petrillo, a university lecturer at Luiss and Unitelma Sapienza, and already the author of several successful Unesco dossiers.
According to the nominating Commission, "the art of pizza making has played a role of social redemption, as an element of identity for a people — not only the Neapolitan people, but the people of Italy. It is a hallmark of Italian identity in the world." This candidacy also averted the risk of "appropriation" by the Americans, who had announced their intention to put forward a candidacy for American-style "pizza."
It is probably the most popularly supported candidacy in the history of Unesco.
The petition promoted by Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio surpassed 2 million signatures, between online endorsements and paper signatures collected at events, rallies and even in many Italian pizzerias. Coldiretti, Cna, associations of pizza makers, pizzeria chains — Rossopomodoro — and flour producers — Caputo — were among the many other organisations and economic and social bodies that joined the campaign. The text of the petition summarises the key features of the proposal.
This art, which was born and has been handed down in Naples for centuries, from generation to generation, consists in working two basic substances — water and flour — in such a way as to create discs of dough, according to a precise technique and set of rules and an entirely Neapolitan vocabulary ("alluccare," "schiaffo," etc.). Working the dough, performing arts such as tossing the disc of dough into the air (certainly not for folklore, but to allow the dough to take in oxygen and acquire the shape needed for the next stage), baking in special ovens with particular types of wood: these are just some of the elements that characterise this art, which for generations has captivated the imagination of children and adults alike.
Over the years, this art has performed and continues to perform a number of important cultural and social functions, the foremost of which is the strong sense of identity that Neapolitan citizens find in this practice, recognising in it the values of conviviality and closeness among the members of the Neapolitan community. The craft of the pizza maker has offered an important opportunity for social redemption and success to many young people who, coming from difficult backgrounds, have thus secured a working future that commands wide respect in society.
A website has been created with all the testimonials and progress of the campaign: www.pizzanelmondo.org.
"The goal of 2 million signatures in support of the candidacy of the art of Neapolitan pizza makers as Unesco intangible heritage has been reached, thanks to the extraordinary mobilisation at the Coldiretti Villaggio contadino on the Lungomare Caracciolo, Rotonda Diaz in Naples," Roberto Moncalvo, head of the large agricultural organisation Coldiretti, recently remarked, "and a journey that began almost seven years ago is drawing to a close, with the final vote taking place from 4 to 8 December in Seoul, South Korea, at the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Unesco."
The candidacy was driven, in addition to Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio's Univerde, by Coldiretti itself, the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani and dozens of bodies and organisations.
Neapolitan pizza has been recognised as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed by the EU since 4 February 2010, but now the objective, Coldiretti concludes, "is to achieve international recognition in the face of a growing number of acts of food piracy and misappropriation of identity."
Inclusion in the Unesco heritage will protect a sector with at least 100,000 permanent workers in the pizza sector in Italy, to which approximately 50,000 more are added at weekends.
In Italy alone it is a market whose value approaches 12 billion euros, according to the Confederazione Nazionale dell'Artigianato e della Piccola e Media impresa (Cna) in its latest survey, conducted specifically in connection with support for the candidacy of pizza as Unesco heritage. Every day in Italy alone, approximately 5 million pizzas are turned out in 63,000 pizzerias and outlets for takeaway, by-the-slice and home delivery.
A popularity that translates into a figure: besides being the most widely known Italian word in the world, according to a Coldiretti survey, 39% of Italians consider pizza to be the country's culinary symbol.
Today it is the Americans who are the biggest pizza consumers, at 13 kilograms per person per year. Italians top the rankings in Europe at 7.6 kilograms, ahead of the Spanish (4.3), French and Germans (4.2), British (4), Belgians (3.8), Portuguese (3.6) and Austrians (3.3).
Pizza is certainly an economic phenomenon without equal that, from its invention in the shadow of Vesuvius, has conquered tables and markets the world over.
Each year approximately 5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide, with an average of 46 pizza slices eaten per person per year. In practice, 350 pizza slices are bitten into every second across the world.
"We must overcome what might be called the Meucci syndrome," declared Amedeo Lepore, Campania Region's councillor for Productive Activities, in September — "that is, we must avoid the fate of the telephone's inventor, who remained somewhat in the shadow of Bell, who commercialised the invention, and ensure that others do not commercialise a Neapolitan excellence."
In the Unesco intangible heritage list, Italy is already represented, as far as food and gastronomy-related assets are concerned, by the Mediterranean diet and the alberello vine-training system, characteristic of Pantelleria.
Read also: (Italian) pizza is not junk food
The art of Neapolitan pizza makers would overall be the seventh Italian treasure to be inscribed on Unesco's intangible cultural heritage list. Up to now, the list includes:
"Unesco recognition – as Coldiretti president Roberto Moncalvo explained – is of extraordinary value for Italy, which is the country where food culture is most deeply rooted and where pizza represents a symbol of national identity. Guaranteeing the national origin of ingredients and the methods of production means defending a piece of our history, but also its distinctiveness in the face of unfair competition."
Declaring the art of pizza-making a world heritage means recognising the value of a sustainable tradition, attentive to naturalness, that speaks of raw materials bound to a genuine love and respect for the land, of the ingenuity of men and women who wanted to find tasty ways to nourish their families and their community, of performing arts, of social dignity, of a magnificent synthesis of history, the Mediterranean diet and Italian identity.
