The Passo Ladro project came about for ethical, social and business reasons.

It is an ethical project, , as our mission is to buy or rent land that has been abandoned for decades in order to restore it to the splendour of the past.

One of the first stretches of land we reclaimed is located between Palazzolo Acreide and Noto. We have invested a lot in reclaiming the land: we analysed the soil, and we used the overturn ploughing technique to break up the surface, thus favouring root expansion, increasing permeability, improving water infiltration and preparating the seedbed. Harrowing breaks up the sods and creates a suitable environment for the seeds, improving water absorption and consequent gemination.

day we can look out over an immense expanse of land, spanning about 30 hectares. We can work these lands to ensure that healthy and genuine products are grown that, with their aromas and flavours, take us back in time, to better times. We give our land all the vitamins and the right substances to make it possible to produce real organic produce, what I call “clean organic”.

It is a social project, because we employ many young people, those who often flee the island to look for a future elsewhere. Through teaching, we get them to understand how important the land is: it gives us fruits and products, and it allows us to live well and earn money. There is no need to leave, to run away. It is important to take care of it, to love so that it will repay you, because the earth is life. Nature, like life, starts out perfect – we are the ones who destroy it.

We want to convince country folk and farmers not to abandon the land that can enrich their lives more importantly than their pockets. We talk to young agronomists and young farmers, we offer them a job, and we are excited to see their eyes shining as they think about the future of our land, of Sicily and, expanding out from there, of our entire planet.

It’s only a business when all these elements we have talked about come together in a new synergy of respect and life, because the land itself is life.

Our products are grown in the Val di Noto, in the fields of the Passo Ladro district, between Noto and Siracusa. In the nineteenth century the district took the name of “Passu Latru” (Thief’s Pass) due to the presence of numerous bandits who used to plunder these lands in past centuries.

We like the term “Ethcal Bandit” because we want to transform those who were the bandits at that time into ethical ones, with a great moral purpose. Today, the ethical bandits are those who strive there, in the heart of Passo Ladro, saving those same lands that are steeped in history and tradition from decay, giving life to healthy and authentic 100% organic products.

They are all those who want to bring about a real change; we are sure that the more we respect nature, the more we will be able to move forward, to continue our journey and create something tangible and concrete to build the only possible future in harmony with the environment.

We certainly have a lot of ambition, but we work from morning to evening, continuously, because this is exactly what the Ethical Bandits want to be, they want to realise that ambition: the future of change.

One of the first farmers I met years ago told me his story and how disappointed and tired he was. He had made up his mind to leave the land and change jobs due to the pressure from multinationals and mass retail organisations on himself, his sector and on his entire work effort.

It’s the multinationals and large supermarket chains that decide on the prices for various products. These prices are too low and don’t even cover the costs of the water used in cultivation, the effort and hard work of the farmers and people who work the land. However, these people often have no choice: after a while, the produce goes bad, and they are thus forced to sell them off in order to earn something.

A boy (S.C.), a farmer’s son, told me about the flight of country folk from the land. He explained to me how exhausting and tiring it is to work the land and then have everything taken away from these large companies at prices that are much lower than the cost of the production effort

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But that boy wasn’t the only one. Once I met two young fellows, the sons of a farmer who grows olives, and I asked them if they had ever thought of selling finished olive oil rather than simply the raw olives alone. The two of them were fresh out of school and very smart, and they paid a lot of attention to my words. Following my advice, they started making olive oil. They now market the finished product themselves

I want to make it clear to young farmers and agriculturalists that transforming the raw material into finished product, enhancing the value of their work, is a better choice from many points of view.

Passo Ladro wants to help these people escape from the price impositions that don’t respect their products, effort or work. And such prices, consequently, don’t respect the consumer either.

Finding young people who are keeping alive the traditions of their parents and grandparents today is extremely difficult. You’re more likely to meet old country folk who still raise their crops and care for the land at the age of 80.

As mentioned earlier, young people don’t see a future in the land.

This is because they see the example of their families, who have not managed to improve their standard of living and continue to live a life of sacrifices, since the price paid for their products does not compensate their work or their struggles.

95% of Sicilian land is abandoned, uncultivated or has simply been sold and rented for other purposes. This is why it is essential to make young people understand how important it is to keep the ancient traditions alive, focusing on the excellence of their products.

Many of the old farmers I have met along my journey, which has been going on for almost 14 years now, revealed to me that they do not know the meaning of the word “organic” nor the techniques that qualify organic farming.

While observing how they worked, I realised that they were unknowingly cultivating the land in an organic manner by not using chemicals such as phosphates and other herbicides.They explained to me that they avoided these products in order not to poison the animals they raised on their land. Precisely for this reason, Sicily is the region with the greatest amount of organic land and number of organic farms in Italy.

Sicily has great potential for growth in terms of increasing organic certifications, and Passo Ladro is committed to training and assisting farmers in getting certified.

It is also important to remember that growing organic food is a healthy and authentic lifestyle choice that improves our planet and the health of the community.

Sadly, it’s a subject that I know very well. As a Sicilian, it hurts to see my land treated this way, but I didn’t just stand by and watch.

So far we have saved between 80 and 100 hectares of land from the use of chemical products and herbicides. To help our land, farmers must be guaranteed the right to take charge of their products, paying them more than the offers made by the multinationals.

The important thing is not to use harmful crop treatment products and substances. For example, glyphosate can endure by binding to soil particles, thus also contaminating underground aquifers and surface water; neonicotinoids are a class of insecticides that are contaminating Europe and are killing off our bee population.

This is the mission I am pursuing: I search for polluted soils, which are often poisoned by chemicals and, in about three years, I restore them to their splendour so that they produce healthy, authentic produce. They may not be aesthetically perfect but they are excellent when it comes to flavour and quality.

The land parcels bought by Passo Ladro in 2006 had been abandoned and had been left uncultivated for about 80 years. They were used as landfills, as is unfortunately the case with all the abandoned land in Sicily.

For a year we worked to reclaim the land, removed all types of waste, overturned the earth and applied substances such as zinc and copper to give the soil the right nourishment. All this has led to excellent quality products, with real and authentic flavours.

In fact, at Passo Ladro, we focus on excellence and having products of the highest quality, also in our processed products, such as the sauces made in our kitchens.

Every farmer I have met has a deep love for their land, loves their island and their territory and works in a respectful way. It is certainly a very tiring job, one that requires many sacrifices, but, if done ethically and with the desire to protect and defend the soil, it can only make us proud.

In other experiences, I’ve found myself talking to people, listening to them, trying to understand certain arguments but, after a while, I realised that I was losing interest in what they were saying.

In this experience with Passo Ladro, when I find myself talking to farmers – real, authentic people, who put love into what they do – I can only listen to them with interest and attention, enthralled by their stories.

An old farmer once told me: “The earth makes you laugh and makes you cry”. It makes you laugh when the harvest is good, when the season has been favourable and the sun has helped the crops grow. It makes you cry when there are thunderstorms, hailstorms and snow. To avoid crying, we must contain the climate change, which often leads to the loss of crops.

While we are also working for the climate, we are trying to organise ourselves and guarantee protection to all those farmers who have the strength and the will to start again after a disaster, or destruction due to cloudbursts, torrential rains and hailstorms. At Passo Ladro we want to be able to guarantee them the cost of sowing and the cost of processing the product. We want to reimburse them so that they can start over afresh, without the need to abandon their lands or sell off their products; our goal is to bring Sicily back to the way it worked in the 1950s.

To really understand what organic is, let’s talk about oranges, for example, Sicily’s iconic fruit product that’s famous throughout the world.

Once, on my way to Castelluccio, I saw people picking oranges that weren’t ripe yet, they were still green. Intrigued by this, I approached them and asked why they were doing it.

They explained to me that, once picked, the still unripe oranges are put in “ovens” to ripen faster and then wax is applied over their peel to make them appear beautiful and perfect.

We don’t do that at Passo Ladro, we do “clean organic”. We wait for the oranges to ripen naturally, we don’t treat them with harmful substances, and we ensure that the taste and fragrance reminds us of Sicily, the real Sicily.