ABSTRACT
Xylella fastidiosa is a quarantine pathogen classified as high risk by the European Food Safety Authority. It’s detection in Apulia in 2013 sparked immediate reaction from the European phytosanitary authorities and forced hundreds of farmers to eradicate centuries old olive trees in the attempt to limit the spread of the disease and reduce the economic loss in the olive sector in the rest of the region. However, olive trees in Apulia have deep cultural, symbolic and historical meanings that cannot be detached from their purely economic value. Emotional attachment and the sense of loss generated by the death of those trees are therefore important aspects to be taken into account when trying to understand the opposition of part of the rural population to the eradication measures. Moreover, the case reveals the coexistence of different ways of valuing the olive tree as an entity, different world-views in which Apulia has been coexisting for long time but that now experience incompatible tensions and clashes due to the sensation of loss caused by the scorched landscapes generated by biological invasion. On the one side, a productivity-driven techno-modernist paradigm oriented toward mechanization and intensification of agricultural production; on the other, a holistic vision in which Xylella fastidiosa is something we should learn to coexist with, and that aims at fostering a more socially just and environmentally sustainable transformation of the whole agricultural sector.
