EVOO Literary Prize Honors Ranieri Filo Della Torre

The Italian asso­ci­a­tion of women entre­pre­neurs and olive oil pro­duc­ers, Pandolea announced the sec­ond edi­tion of an inter­na­tional lit­er­ary con­test Ranieri Filo della Torre based on the theme of olive oil and olive tree.

Following the suc­cess of the first edi­tion, the asso­ci­a­tion arranged a rich pro­gram, cul­mi­nat­ing in an award cer­e­mony that will be held February 2, 2018, at the head­quar­ters of the Italian Farmers Confederation in Rome.

The event has the sup­port of the Italian National Academy of the Olive and Olive Oil, which is among the most author­i­ta­tive Italian insti­tu­tions in the sec­tor. Chaired by Riccardo Gucci, it pro­motes research and debate on major issues relat­ing to olive tree and its prod­ucts.

“The con­test is ded­i­cated to Ranieri Filo della Torre, an impor­tant fig­ure for Italian olive oil,” said Pandolea’s pres­i­dent, Loriana Abbruzzetti. ​“This is an oppor­tu­nity to cre­ate and spread cul­ture, with the ambi­tious goal to redis­cover hid­den val­ues of the olive grow­ing world, its rit­u­als, and leg­ends, ancient sto­ries, and songs that speak of heroes and brig­ands, but also of sol­i­dar­ity.”

This occa­sion for reflec­tion and cre­ativ­ity which goes beyond the pro­duc­tion prac­tices and the val­oriza­tion of prod­ucts, orig­i­nates from the artis­tic expres­sions beloved by della Torre, who was born in 1951 by a noble fam­ily. ​“But the unmis­tak­able nobil­ity that he pos­sessed was the one enclosed in his soul,” the orga­niz­ers of the com­pe­ti­tion told me.

Ranieri Filo della Torre was a mem­ber of the National Academy of the Olive and Olive Oil, worked as a jour­nal­ist with pres­ti­gious Italian mag­a­zines of the sec­tor and co-authored sev­eral pub­li­ca­tions on olive cul­ti­va­tion. Married with Marida Iacona, a ceramist and painter, they have two chil­dren, Roberto and Carmen.

Since 1999, he was gen­eral direc­tor of Unaprol and this led him to address the prob­lems and hopes of olive grow­ers with pas­sion and com­pe­tence. ​“Ranieri was able to empathize with oth­ers and tried to under­stand the feel­ings, pas­sions and anguish of his inter­locu­tors, both friends and acquain­tances, with sim­plic­ity and loy­alty, with­out hid­den motives,” Abbruzzetti remarked.

Humanity, wis­dom, kind­ness and res­olute­ness but above all humil­ity char­ac­ter­ized him. When at age sixty, in 2011, he died of leukemia, his loss left a huge void. ​“We want to cel­e­brate his pro­fes­sional and human tal­ents through his pas­sions,” Abbruzzetti pointed out. ​“Moreover, he was plan­ning an event to cel­e­brate forms of artis­tic and lit­er­ary expres­sion and to divulge cul­ture.”

Literature, his­tory and com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and sci­ence are the three sec­tions in which the com­pe­ti­tion is orga­nized. Corrado Calabro’ is the pres­i­dent of the jury which will eval­u­ate the works includ­ing Elia Fiorillo, Loriana Abbruzzetti, Maria Cristina Valeri, Ilenia Gradante, Maria Rosa Patti, Antonio Ragone, Alessandra Felli, Gabriella Rossitto, Sergio De Angelis, Sergio Belfiore, Erberto Accinni, Stefano Colonna and Andrea Tomasini.

‘Olive oil, nutri­tion of the Mother Earth’ is the topic of the lit­er­ary sec­tion, coor­di­nated by the writer Vera Ambra. The best works will be col­lected in an anthol­ogy pub­lished by the Akkuaria Association.

The win­ner of the his­tory and com­mu­ni­ca­tion sec­tion, pro­moted by the Vita Romana Association and curated by the archae­ol­o­gist Maria Rosa Patti, will be pub­lished in the Telematic Bulletin of Art BTA, belong­ing to art his­tory depart­ment of the La Sapienza University of Rome.

The sci­en­tific sec­tion, pro­moted by the National Academy of the Olive Tree and Olive Oil, is chaired by its pres­i­dent Riccardo Gucci. Coordinated by the researcher Sonia Esposto, it is intended for schol­ars who have pre­pared grad­u­ate or doc­toral the­sis regard­ing the biol­ogy and cul­ti­va­tion of olive tree, the pro­duc­tion of olive oil and its byprod­ucts, and the preser­va­tion and val­oriza­tion of olive-grow­ing prod­ucts.

Special awards will go to peo­ple who made a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the activ­i­ties of Pandolea Association.

Works, includ­ing the reg­is­tra­tion form, must be sent by October 30, 2017.

• Pandolea