Original version

BBC World Service Online

From Our Own Correspondent

News

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers.

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.

From Our Own Correspondent: Italy and Bolivia

15/07/2013

Italy and Bolivia

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Italy and Bolivia

The Calabrian mayor fighting local mafias - and why the wholefood quinoa is booming

The Calabrian mayor fighting local mafias - and why the wholefood quinoa is becoming a gourmet delicacy worldwide.

Dany Mitzman is in Calabria, the toe of Italy's boot, meeting a small-town mayor who said 'basta' to the local culture of impunity, corruption and pollution. Maria Carmela Lanzetta's protests put her home, Monasterace, on the rest of Italy's mental map - but in the end even this doughty reformer was exhausted by trying to prop up a hollow state. 

Ed Stocker travels over the vast, glistening white salt flats of Uyuni in Bolivia to the heartland of quinoa, the crop that's won over the world. In the West it is considered a health food and a gourment delicacy - but what impact is global demand having on the Andean countries where people have been growing and eating quinoa for millennia?

Accessibility links

Programme Index

From Our Own Correspondent

Italy and Bolivia

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service