In the heel of Italy, a disaster is unfolding which could prove catastrophic, not simply for Italy itself but for countries all around the Mediterranean basin. A bacterium which is deadly to olive trees has already infected some 10 percent of the 11 million olive tress in the Lecce region. The European Commission in Brussels says that scientists are warning that all trees that show the slightest sign of disease must be destroyed. This is no casual demand. Some of the olive trees are many hundreds of years old. From an economic point of view, their loss would be irreplaceable. Unfortunately, olives are not like wheat which can be planted and grow tall with a season. It can take years after planting before trees begin to produce fruit. Unless the disease can be stopped, olive farmers in the whole Apulia region in southeast Italy face ruin. And it gets worse. The bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, also infects citrus trees and vines. It is spread by sap-sucking insects. Carried on the wind, these creatures can travel immense distances. The drastic measure currently being tried in Italy is to clear a 15-kilometer-wide buffer zone of any trees and vegetation in which insects might hole up. Meanwhile, orders are being given to cut down and burn whole groves of olive trees, even those which do not show any signs of the disease. This is because it has been determined that even trees that do not show signs of infestation may nevertheless be harboring disease-bearing insects. The concern of the EU in Brussels is of course that the bacterium will spread beyond Italy to Greece, France and Spain, the last of which is the largest EU olive oil and citrus fruit producer. What is not being taken into account is the danger also posed to North African olive and citrus groves. The best Libyan olive oils are arguably among the world's finest. Then there is the potentially appalling destruction that could be done in Lebanon and southern and eastern Turkey. This disease was brought to Italy from North America where it is endemic. But Mediterranean olive trees do not have any resistance to it. Nor, unfortunately, have US agriscientists come up with a sure method of combating the disease. It could be argued that Italy is the very worst country for Xylella fastidiosa to strike, since farmers have been known to work with corrupt politicians, officials and the Mafia to rip off the treasury in Brussels. The EU's unwieldy Common Agricultural Policy is a fraudster's charter and Italy has been the country that has most successfully run rings around Eurocrats. Thus, billions have been handed out in subsidies for animals and crops and forests that never existed. The clear danger is that the same cynical and exploitative attitudes will cause farmers to ignore instructions to destroy their olive groves, or more likely say they have destroyed them and pocket fat compensation checks while the trees remain in production, not least as a bacterial reservoir from which the disease will spread further. The demands being made of the olive and citrus farmers of Lecce are tragic indeed and these people deserve every sympathy. No cash compensation is going to make up for their loss. But a far greater tragedy would be if the corruption which is as endemic in Italy as the disease is in America allowed this deadly bacterium to spread around the Mediterranean.
