ABSTRACT
Thinking of inland Sicily, the first image that comes to my mind is a treeless hillside, green with wheat, speckled here and there by the red dots of poppies in late winter and spring, then brown and desolate through the heat of the summer and fall. This image, of course, is no longer accurate. Today wheat is not the backbone of Sicilian agriculture. In many areas vineyards are rapidly taking the place of wheat fields; in others the fields lie uncultivated. Even the famous orchards of oranges and lemons of the north and east coasts and the Catania Plain are feeling the pressure of foreign imports.
