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Farming in PFAS-Contaminated Areas: An Ethnographic Exploration within the Veneto Region

L’agricoltura nelle zone contaminate dagli PFAS: un’esplorazione etnografica nella Regione Veneto
Giovanni Lorenzi

Abstract

Questo articolo esplora i risultati di un’indagine etnografica condotta tra novembre 2022 e marzo 2023 nel settore agricolo in aree altamente contaminate da PFAS nella Regione Veneto, Italia. Per comprendere come gli agricoltori abbiano vissuto la contaminazione e cosa pensino delle loro esperienze, sono state condotte ricerche sul campo e interviste semi-strutturate. In assenza di qualsiasi supporto istituzionale e di chiare regolamentazioni, l’approccio istituzionale del laissez-faire ha accentuato la responsabilità individuale, lasciando gli agricoltori da soli ad affrontare queste sostanze chimiche. In questo contesto, viene analizzata la precarietà del settore agricolo, una caratteristica principale del contesto socioecologico della contaminazione, insieme alle fratture e al silenzio derivanti dalla contaminazione.

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Testo integrale

1. PFAS’ Ontologies

1Elements and anthropogenic molecules shape human bodies and human action as much as human affects and imaginaries. More often than not, they shape our imaginaries of catastrophe and ecological destruction as we align ourselves with proliferating necrochemicals – such as the “ubiquitous elements” [...] including plutonium – that have shaped our sense of the future since the first test of a nuclear weapon in 1945 (Papadopoulos 2021: 42).

2With these words, Dimitris Papadopoulos refers to Joseph Masco’s (2021) identification of plutonium and microplastics as indicators of human presence on the planet, namely markers of a «new ontological condition on Earth» (Masco 2021: 133). Intertwining human and non-human bodies and invading environments on a global scale, travelling through the atmosphere and the food chain, synthetic compounds are characterised by diverse temporalities that shape past, present, and future trajectories of toxicity. Thus, chemicals create histories that frame imaginaries. Like plutonium, artificial compound traces go beyond the golden spike stratigraphic review, interfering with the multiple narratives of the Anthropocene. During the twentieth century, the extensive utilisation of synthetic substances significantly impacted consumer culture within the capitalist economy. That is the case of the invention and commercialisation of Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), broadly known as Teflon. This synthetic fluoropolymer is among the most representative per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a chemical group that, since its inception, exemplifies how petrochemical infrastructures often intersect with a complex “unseen” scientific network of knowledge (Richter et al. 2018; Wickham, Shriver 2021) becoming tools of slow toxic violence among communities (Davies 2022; Nixon 2011).

3Due to their high oil and water repellency, temperature and chemical resistance, PFAS have been largely produced and used in many industrial sectors and manufactured goods. For instance, these substances find application in the manufacturing of plastics and rubber, the building and construction sectors, and the chemical industry – where they contribute to the production of other PFAS compounds and pesticides, just to mention a few. Additionally, they are essential in the energy sector, including the manufacture of solar collectors, photovoltaic cells, windmill blades, and lithium batteries. Furthermore, PFAS are employed in the production of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), food packaging, cookware, cosmetics, textiles, photographic paper, and film, and are also prominent within the automotive and pharmaceutical industries (Glüge et al., 2020). Their chemical structure – in which the number of Carbon-Fluorine bonds may vary – influences versatility and durability allowing them to bioaccumulate while having long half-lives and high persistence lasting for years, even centuries, in bodies and environments. For these reasons, they have been renamed “forever chemicals” and used in hundreds of daily-life objects around us. Their minimal size significantly influenced the imaginative process linked to their widespread usage. Indeed, being used in extremely low concentrations, these compounds are impossible to see and taste by humans, and difficult to detect by chemical infrastructures and technological devices. In addition, no shared definition and regulations has been implemented in the worldwide regulatory system. In this scenario, these substances have accumulated in the human tissues through drinking water and food, being present in the air, soil, and the water cycle.

4Today, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are mainly associated with a wide range of health issues. Some of them are classified as endocrine disruptors, causing hormonal imbalances, fertility issues, birth defects, and various biochemical changes in humans. High PFAS exposure is linked to hypertension, high cholesterol, thyroid disease, colitis, and pregnancy-induced hypertension and increases the risk of diabetes, stroke, heart attack, Alzheimer's, testicular, kidney, and breast cancer (Mastrantonio et al. 2018; Steenland, Winquist 2021), just to mention a few. Since the 2000s, the knowledge and awareness regarding these compounds have increased in the Global North. Journalists have recently begun highlighting the presence of PFAS by creating open-source maps indicating their distribution (Cordner et al. 2024), while activist groups focusing on the multiple consequences of PFAS exposure are growing in numbers within the impacted communities. New regulations have been established and updated after decades in which these substances have been manufactured without any limits. However, within the fragmented global regulatory surveillance systems, these compounds have been detected in the waters and wildlife within the Arctic (Muir et al. 2019) and in the Tibetan plateau (Miner et al. 2021; Wang et al. 2014) confirming their ubiquity across bodies and environments.

2. Research Context

2.1 The Veneto Region Contamination

  • 1 In the late Sixties, Giannino Marzotto, a young entrepreneur, decided to open a laboratory, Rimar ( (...)

5Despite PFAS’s diffusion, limited public and media attention has been devoted to understanding contaminations from farmers’ perspective. Looking at the Italian context, previous social science research emphasised the sense of helplessness insecurity, isolation, and exhaustion in the family context and within the impacted communities (Menegatto et al. 2022; Zamperini, Menegatto 2021), and their collective responses (Cecchi 2022). Due to their chemical and physical features, looking at the perspectives and experiences in the impacted farming sector offers a privileged point of observation on the diffusion of chemical externalities. As I will show, in the Veneto region, Italy, farmers witnessed unique social and economic consequences related to the contamination. By spending time with farmers, I realised that their experiences were influenced by conditions such as fear, scepticism, and panic while discovering internal fractures and practices to cope with the issue. The general lack of communication and support led to situations of further uncertainty, mental distress, a sense of helplessness, and loss of trust in the same governmental apparatuses. Indeed, for decades, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances were believed to be safe. As shown by many (Bilott 2019; Lanzavecchia et al. 2022; Lyons 2007; Pearson, Renfrew 2023; Richter et al. 2018), chemical corporations have asserted that PFAS are not harmful to human beings. Only during the 1990s, did health concerns regarding “forever chemicals” grow due to different locations in which drinking water was identified as the main source of exposure in the US population (Goldenman et al. 2019). In Italy, research carried out by Centro Nazionale Ricerca and Istituto Ricerca Sulle Acque (CNR-IRSA) (Polesello et al. 2013) detected high levels of these compounds in the drinking water and water bodies of various municipalities spanning the provinces of Vicenza, Verona, and Padova within the Veneto Region. The main contamination source was identified as Trissino’s chemical plant, the Miteni Spa, former Rimar (Ricerche Marzotto)1. This factory was built above one of Europe’s largest groundwater basins and operated from 1965 until its closure for bankruptcy in 2018. Rimar-Miteni produced various PFAS – spanning from shorter and longer chain varieties – and disposed of them into the environment for decades. In the aftermath of the discovery of the contamination, extensive public research and investigations were initiated, resulting in what is considered one of the most significant instances of water contamination in European environmental history affecting more than 300,000 human inhabitants and an undefined number of nonhuman beings within an area of over 180 km2 (Orellana 2022).

6Considering the characteristics of the pollutants’ dispersion, in 2016, the regional government mapped the contaminated area, according to the estimated health impact of PFAS contamination (Regione Veneto 2018): the red zone, indicating “maximum health exposure,” included municipalities with the highest PFAS concentrations in surface water, drinking water, and groundwater; the orange zone covered municipalities where per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances exceedances were detected in private water intakes, signalling contamination risks for private wells; the yellow zone was subject to monitoring through environmental control systems, particularly for irrigation sources; and the green zone required additional monitoring. Within the 30 municipalities of the red zone, residents were first invited to take part in the free-of-charge health regional surveillance program in 2016. In May 2023, the expansion of the regional health monitoring initiative to the orange zone occurred. Even though residents in the red zone had free access to the health monitoring program, those in the orange zone were presently obligated to pay a fee of €90 (Regione Veneto 2023a). A recent study estimates nearly 4,000 more deaths than expected caused by PFAS exposure between 1985 and 2018 in the red zone municipalities. The raised mortality was found to be associated with cardiovascular disease and malignant neoplastic diseases, such as testicular cancer and kidney cancer (Biggeri et al. 2024).

2.2 The Agricultural Sector

7For centuries, the agricultural vocation of the Veneto region has been a defining element of its identity. While being recognized as one of the most polluted European areas, it is also known as one of the most agriculturally rich Italian regions. However, after World War Two, Veneto together with a large part of the Po Valley experienced intense industrialization which led to massive changes in the farming sector and its landscape (Vallerani, Varotto 2005). Concerning the presence of agricultural businesses in PFAS-contaminated areas, I could not locate any census data related to the number of affected agricultural enterprises. Moreover, I have not found assessments of the impact in terms of reduced production or quality of agricultural products within the provinces involved. As a result, there are no officially direct or quantifiable economic consequences within the agricultural sector.

  • 2 In 2016-2017, the Italian National Institute for Health (ISS), the Veneto Region Environmental Prot (...)
  • 3 According to a regional ordinance, there is a temporary ban, until December 31, 2024, on the consum (...)

8Despite the reluctance to publish the related data, as outlined in a further scientific study by Zamboni et al. (2021), the regional sampling plan for food carried out in 2016-2017 indicated that all varieties of vegetables and fruits are free from risks related to PFAS dietary exposure2. For this reason, within the impacted areas, no limiting actions have been taken regarding food production by public institutions. The only exception has been made for the fish farming industry3. Concerning the economic repercussions, individuals I met during this research have consistently indicated a significant impact on the agricultural sector. However, estimating the precise economic consequences remains challenging. This complexity arises from the extension of PFAS contamination beyond the primary zone identified by public authorities. Particularly for smaller enterprises that may be less equipped to handle market fluctuations, this dynamic may result in significant economic distress for the sector. It is important to outline that in 2020, Veneto was the fourth region in Italy in terms of the number of agricultural enterprises (83.017), after Puglia (191.430), Sicily (142.416), and Calabria (95.538) (ISTAT, 2022). This number points out how agriculture has a relevant economic role in the region.

9An important biomonitoring study of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances serum levels in farmers in the Veneto region (Ingelido et al. 2020) revealed that the highest median concentration in individuals from the most affected areas was 25 times higher than in individuals residing outside the impacted municipalities. It is important to highlight that, within the contaminated areas, small-sized agricultural businesses mostly consume what they cultivate. This aspect, together with the presence of contaminated wells, has exacerbated the consequences of the exposure for farmers. In this scenario, agricultural producers in the Veneto region have been forced to face high costs to detect and lessen the amount of PFAS in their environment. Meanwhile, their products have been labelled as contaminated by local communities, adversely affecting their sales. Undoubtedly, this is a challenging topic to address, not only due to the difficulty of understanding and unravelling the complexities of PFAS pollution but also due to the multitude of actors and scales involved and the roles they have played. In addition to suffering severe economic repercussions from the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances contamination, the farming sector has been blamed and accused by local communities and social movements of spreading these contaminants through their products without applying any control measures. In my perspective, the institutional actors still contribute to the creation of a general context of fear, panic, and scepticism, along with contradictions, ambiguities, and hesitations – which are sentiments felt by the affected communities and partly shared with institutional parts – all stem from the hiatus exacerbated by the absence of institutional initiatives to support farmers and the reliance on individual choice and will inherent in the neoliberal system. While my research partners were keen to answer most of my questions, I perceived a generally silent background within the PFAS-affected area. This condition was confirmed within all the phases of my research.

3. Methods and Theoretical Framework

  • 4 This article summarises a part of my Master's thesis in Environmental Humanities, completed at Ca’ (...)
  • 5 I use “anthropochemicals” to indicate «all these human-made synthetic substances that reign over ou (...)

10It is worth noticing that this research does offer a partial overview of the farming sector of the PFAS-impacted areas in the Veneto Region. What I intend to explore in this research4 is the perspectives and experiences of farmers who have been forced to deal with these unique anthropochemicals5. Initially, the questions arise: How did they experience the contamination? What do they think about what they have experienced? To answer these questions, between November 2022 and March 2023, I carried out ethnographic research on seven agricultural companies in the PFAS-contaminated area between the provinces of Vicenza and Verona. These farming activities were identified and selected by confronting the contamination map published by the Veneto Region (Regione Veneto 2018) with a satellite-originated map provided by Google Maps, where I was able to locate with precision the affected municipalities. I then proceeded to contact as many farmers as possible within the red and orange zones, reaching out to more than 50 agricultural businesses.

11The seven agricultural businesses located within the red and orange zones allowed me to visit their facilities, including their fields, shops, warehouses, and stables. During these field trips, I recorded free and semi-structured interviews using a microphone. When I decided to not register the conversations, for example, while sharing a meal or helping them in the field, I took notes. Furthermore, the farmers I spoke with were all employed in or managed small-scale operations, often run as family businesses. Most of them fall within the 35 to 50-year age range. These small-size activities, with land holdings ranging from 1 to 15 hectares and their workforce compositions varying from two to fifteen employees, were the only ones that accepted my presence. In addition, preliminary conversations and meetings with researchers, activists, trade unionists, journalists, and other personalities helped me to understand the perception, the atmosphere, and the multiple actors that in different ways are involved in the agricultural sector inside and beyond the contaminated area. I used these conversations to build my research questions and to organise a better strategy for getting in contact with farmers.

12Addressing the PFAS question in the Veneto region, I argue, requires a reconceptualisation of our relationship with the world that recognises the extensive interconnectedness and mutual dependency of all entities, rather than viewing chemicals as discrete and isolated units (Murphy 2021). In this sense, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances represent puzzles that necessitate a deeper understanding of the interactions between different ecological and social systems. By acknowledging the presence of anthropochemical-driven imaginaries and new forms of “chemosociality”, a concept that «involves novel, altered, attenuated, or augmented relationships that emerge from shared and shifting chemical ecologies» (Shapiro, Kirksey 2017: 484), this article offers an overview of farmers experiences and perspectives in the context of one of the largest PFAS contaminations ever detected. In the following pages, I focus on silences, limits, fractures, and the different temporal and spatial scales and layers I encountered. Especially the notions of “toxic layering” (Goldstein, Hall 2015), limit, and threshold (Liboiron 2021) will serve as critical and theoretical tools to analyse and discuss what farmers shared with me during this fieldwork. By exploring and deconstructing their experiences and perspectives, I drew inspiration from Joseph Dumit’s works (2014; 2021). Thus, this research and how its outcomes are displayed here are inspired by the concept of the “Implosion Project,” a teaching assignment developed by Dumit (2014). Informed by the ideas of Gilles Deleuze and Donna Haraway, this inspiring and educational tool was conceived on the understanding that «telling the stories of an object, therefore, begins unpacking our own clichés, our certainties, our affects» (Dumit 2014: 349). It is accompanied by a set of questions aiming to investigate «the tissue of an object» (ibidem: 350) and it is grounded in the notion of situated knowledge put forth by Haraway (1988). With this theoretical framework, I argue that the pervasive intergenerational and interspecies violence caused by Rimar-Miteni practices requires an unfixed view which necessitates an adaptable perspective that aligns with the methodological framework of situated knowledge. All participants have expressed verbal consent to be recorded or be part of this research. To protect the identity of the people that I encountered, all their personal information, including names, locations, and other relevant data has been anonymised with made-up names.

4. Cultivating the PFAS land

4.1 Toxic Layering

13“My PFAS level was quite high, so like... higher end… 140 [ng/ml] of PFOA when the limit is 8 [ng/ml]… Something like that. So I said, well, we’re all going to die anyway” (Diego). Despite PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) being phased out by many companies in the last two decades, only at the end of 2023 has it been declared as “cancerogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the Cancer Agency of the World Health Organization (WHO, 2023). In 2010, the PFOA concentration that characterised the blood of 95% of the general Italian population was estimated to be 8 ng/ml (Ingelido et al. 2010), while Diego claimed to have a concentration almost 18 times higher. Even though the production of these chemicals began in the 1960s, no threshold existed at the time of the discovery of the contamination. PFAS-linked medical conditions and their capacity to «cascade intergenerationally across bodies» (Murphy 2017: 499) fall within the category of “invisible harm,” a term employed to denote the «broad effects of increasing environmental toxicity and contamination in specific late capitalist contexts» (Goldstein 2017: 321). Moreover, the uncertainty that arises in Diego’s words leads to the concept of “latency” proposed by Michelle Murphy (2015). Within the PFAS-affected area, this notion assists in emphasising the difficulty of drawing a distinct line between the past, the present, and the future. Indeed, latency signifies a delay that represents the temporal interval between a stimulus and response:

In medicine, latency time is similar to an incubation period. Latency time is the leg between infection and infectiousness. Or it is the wait between chemical exposure and symptom. To be latent is to be dormant, a potential not yet manifest. In temporal terms, latency is the wait for the effects of the past to arrive in the present. As such, latency is movement from past to present, or even to future. It is the inverse temporal orientation of anticipation - in which the not yet future reorients the present (Murphy 2015: 106).

14In ecological terms, latency is the lag of time that affects a submerged fragment of the past by disrupting its presence in the present. Thus, «through latency, the future is already altered» (Murphy 2015: 106). These body alterations are triggered by the presence of persistent pollutants that bioaccumulate in tissues. In itself, the residue of a particular herbicide, rather than a treatment product, is not harmful. The problem lies in the accumulation of all these residues:

There’s a bit of one, a bit of another, a bit of this, and then you add a PFAS, and you add this... in the end, what you end up ingesting is potentially hazardous in the long term. You won't see it today or tomorrow, but maybe when you become elderly, those little ailments start appearing, like blood pressure issues, thyroid problems, and so on, you know? That's why, as soon as we could, we informed ourselves about the condition of our water table. We were already making an effort to keep our vegetables as clean as possible, and at least we found out that we are not introducing something else that was beyond our control (Adriana).

15Within highly PFAS-contaminated areas and chemical contaminations in general, what makes it even more difficult to confirm a causal relationship between contaminant exposure and specific medical conditions is the proliferation of different toxic chemicals that collide in defined areas. Following Goldstein and Hall (2015) and their study on the potential impacts of industrial pollution on the health of teenagers in New Jersey, USA, this condition is known as “toxic layering” and it is peculiar to a specific context in which the accumulation of various interwoven toxins complicates the identification of casualties. In other words, this concept refers to the situation in which various sources of toxicity create a sort of “background noise” that makes it impossible to identify a clear correlation between exposure to a specific harmful substance and a particular medical condition. As reported by Renfrew and Pearson (2021), per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances’ contamination are «usually layered onto or intersects with a myriad of other forms of pollution, as well as other types of resource conflicts and environmental inequalities» (158). As a result, depending on the size of the farming enterprise in the Veneto region, their vulnerability is further exacerbated under conditions of high, often undetectable, and layered pollution. Nevertheless, the heavily polluted and human-altered environment of the Po Valley region, combined with the significant industrialisation in this area, create a singular setting where these factors converge in a region known for its strong agricultural focus. Indeed, in the red and orange zones, the industrial and agricultural districts appear to be intertwined. As highlighted by Turri (2001), the Po Valley has become a dispersed single city, thus forming a “megalopolis” that, however, does not reflect the particularities of a megacity. Instead of having eye-catching infrastructures and skyscrapers, this landscape is still marked by elements of its rural past. In this macroregion, most of the waters of channels, rivers, and other streams enter the principal Italian waterway, the Po River. Indeed, the so-called Megalopoli Padana, the Po Valley megalopolis (Turri 2001), has emerged as a confluence of industrial waste, both legal and illegal, and a construction sector that has contributed to its morphological impoverishment, resulting in both aesthetic and ecological detriment (Aimini 2020). As outlined by Raffaetà (2013), these features have influenced how communities perceive the socio-material environment of the nordest (northeast), contributing to the emergence of a sense of nostalgia. This feeling of longing, rooted in their peasant heritage, is expressed through notions of naturalness that stand in contrast to the growing pollution levels and industrialisation. Besides, cultivating the PFAS land not only entails daily encounters with pollution but also involves dealing with the various consequences of anthropogenic global warming. Indeed, farmers perceive themselves as victims of multiple phenomena. In spring 2023, Carolina, the owner of the largest agricultural business I visited, admitted that they were frightened, “because last year there was a severe drought. SEVERE. And this year it is worse if it doesn’t start raining.” In a related vein, Francesco shared with me the same struggle related to the 2022 summer:

[...] We had an incredibly challenging summer in terms of water. It didn’t rain at all. It’s ironic that during such a dry summer, we had water with PFAS, you know (sarcasm)... But the tanneries never stopped, and they use liters and liters of water to make one piece of leather. I mean, this is something I didn’t know, but I believe it’s also pollution, even though it’s considered acceptable... [...] We keep talking about PFAS, filling our mouths and eyes with it, but we need to look everywhere else too, I mean, everywhere... Not just focusing on that and forgetting about everything else (Francesco).

16However, the agricultural sector condition is not only aggravated by extreme climatic events associated with anthropogenic global warming but also is affected by multiple factors. According to Cristina, “farmers are always pointed out as significant polluters, while in reality, they are also victims even in the broader discussion... On a larger scale, related to climate change and so on, but also in this specific case, they are truly and entirely victims”. Global trends meet local occurrences. One example of such events was the incidental fire of a paint factory located in the red zone that impacted the agricultural sector in the middle of the hot summer of 2022. The impacts of the incidental fire of this local factory were shared by many farmers I met. In July, the plant caught fire generating black smoke visible from kilometres away, which harmed the summer season revenues of numerous agricultural businesses. Substances such as benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, dioxins, and furans have been released from the combustion of this industrial plant (Milioni, Rosso 2022; VicenzaToday 2022). The release of these toxic substances alerted local authorities, leading to the temporary closure of farms in the nearby area for a few days. Indeed, according to farmers, institutional measures consisting of temporarily closing businesses and carrying out biochemical monitoring triggered clients’ scepticism and disrupted the seasonal income of farmers.

4.2 Limits

17The diverse polluted layers of the impacted areas clash with a set of regulations and artificial boundaries. Specifically, for organic certification – in Italian translated with “bio”– the current regulatory framework has not yet formalised procedures for identifying these pollutants. As reported by Greenpeace (2023) and indicated to me by preliminary informants, the national organic certification regulations do not require any PFAS analyses for those seeking to certify their agricultural business as organic. Some farmers I met were aware of this regulatory gap and were not surprised about it. Carolina, who claimed to know many colleagues within the sector, told me that many agricultural businesses choose to apply for the certification “because it must be done to put the green leaf on the wine bottle.” For her, the staff responsible for the organic certification

[was] not even aware, you know. Because they come to do the analyses personally, and they are not even aware... they are not even aware... [...] But maybe they are also from the same area, perhaps they visit the farms, they want the farms to keep working... Maybe they are also from the area and they know (Carolina).

18Four out of seven companies I met claimed to be organic certified. Embracing principles and practices linked with organic agriculture collides with the polluted and toxic environment of the Po Valley. As is often the case in organic farms, short trees mark the borders of the property to divide the crops from the external land. Beyond these frontiers is the uncertainty of conventional and intensive agriculture which is combined with other polluted externalities. For Eric,

[...] The hedge is precisely what allows us, well… we needed it, especially for the organic regulations, to protect our crops. [...] But also to create and maintain biodiversity, even in terms of animal life, compared to what exterminates my crop on the other side, beyond this border: Vietnam, with flamethrowers (Eric).

  • 6 Thus far, based on my research, there are no public or private centres in Italy that provide analys (...)

19The demarcation between “us” and “them” is one of the leitmotivs of this ethnographic research. By mapping these highly PFAS-contaminated areas, it is indeed a fact that the regional government has set specific limits: internal (the red, orange, yellow, and green zones) and external boundaries (between the PFAS-affected area and the presumed PFAS-free areas). Such biopolitical division left individuals who lived outside the red zone, in the nearby impacted areas, unaware of whether they carried pollutants in their bodies, increasing fragmentation and uncertainty within the population. As already reported, residents of the orange zone were excluded from the regional biomonitoring program until early 2023, when the government decided to extend the program and introduced a fee6. From my perspective, even though the division has been carried out based on concentrations in aquatic matrices using municipal borders as reference points, the affected areas lack clear and defined boundaries due to the capacity of these substances to spread to unanticipated locations. As previously noted, these chemicals can reach unexpected locations due to their unique physical and chemical characteristics. As a result, the movement of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances creates social divisions within the communities which have been exacerbated by the slow institutional response. In the geographical and social context of this contamination, the enigmatic nature of these compounds is unravelled through contradictions. It is worth telling that another known limit I found is related to the presence of PFAS in scanning and mapping private wells. Indeed, in 2017, on the occasion of the mapping process, wells and other water sources were listed and analysed to understand the presence of the pollutants. Due to the difficulties of listing hundreds of unrecorded sources, this monitoring plan was criticised and deemed as precarious and incomplete by activists and local actors. The difficulties in scanning the contaminated areas and listing wells dealt with the practices of hiding illegal constructions within private properties. Following what activists, agricultural sector-related personalities, and farmers told me, this lack of transparency made it difficult to understand the real presence of these unique anthropochemicals within the large territory that was impacted. The habit of hiding that obstructs the identification of the contamination sources represents a further demonstration of the porous and slippery features of PFAS contamination. It further illustrates inadequate efforts to establish limits within this chemical arena. This use is confirmed by Eric’s words,

I mean, there, it’s all about practicality, and since you’ve already spent one hundred, you might as well spend one hundred one. I mean, we even had a well dug [...] that goes down to 90 metres into the water table. And why... Well, I’m telling you, it hasn’t been reported yet […] it’s one of the practices that seem to be commonplace around here (Eric).

20Even though it was not officially documented, their well was constructed to avoid contaminated water and the associated costly expense. This widespread practice of concealment intersects with the economic precarity of the agricultural sector. This aspect embodies a distinctive feature of the PFAS-impacted area and the Veneto region (Vallerani 2013). Indeed, according to Diego, illicit practices are widespread and known:

There are people who use very contaminated channels for irrigation. And even there, there isn’t a clear regulation about what’s there. Have you tested the water from that channel? No. You use it, you dispose of it because maybe you’re growing cereals, and that’s it (Diego).

21Once again, this serves as an example of how the concept of limit lacks the requisite attributes to effectively address the slippery presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Within this scenario, the instances of illegal practices presented by Eric and Diego exemplify behaviours that align with particular social and economic contexts, which are part of the agricultural sector framework of the Veneto Region.

4.3 Fractures

22Tellingly, most of the farmers I met had no direct contact with social movements, but they believed that activist groups were responsible for spreading alarmism and fear related to agricultural activities. Within the perspectives and experiences of farmers, the presence of Mamme NoPFAS (“Mothers NoPFAS”) was constant during the interviews. The Mamme can be considered the largest and most relevant activist group formed in the aftermath of the contamination. Despite being completed in 2019, the analytical data and georeferencing information of the matrices analysed in the “Sampling Plan for Food Testing for Perfluoroalkyl Substances,” conducted by the Veneto Region in 2016-17 in the municipalities of the red zone were initially not made public. The region opposed the publication of the findings and only thanks to the efforts carried out by the Mamme with Greenpeace that appealed to the court, the results were partially published two years later in April 2021 (Zamboni et al. 2021). For these reasons and their leading role, they stand out as one of the most active and relevant groups. Although they are a heterogeneous group of people, the members of this movement share common experiences of parenthood, uncertainty, and the fact that they became unwitting participants in the contamination of their children’s bodies (Cecchi 2022). “Have there been any Mamme NoPFAS who mentioned our company’s name?” was an unexpected question Monica asked me. This query summarised the stigmatisation within the communities and made me realise another aspect of the farmers’ challenges related to cultivating in this context of constant fear. When I turned off my recorder, Monica asked me if her farm was on a list made by the Mamme. Monica’s fear was centred around being labelled and listed as contaminated by them. This made me wonder if any of the businesses that ghosted or declined to meet me were also apprehensive about this possibility, and it opened my eyes to the intricate relationships within the research context. In this regard, grassroots movements such as Mamme NoPFAS, emerging after the discovery, can be viewed as a community response, justified by the distressing experience tied to the contamination (Zamperini, Menegatto 2021). However, from my perspective, the practice of blaming farmers for being contaminated and spreading per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances among the communities reinforced the neoliberal apparatus that enabled Rimar-Miteni to carry out its deadly, routinized practices for decades (Lanzavecchia et al. 2022). The presence of industrial waste containing PFAS buried near the chemical plant was documented and public investigations reported that Miteni management was aware of the high levels of toxic contaminants yet allowed the proliferation of historical contamination (benzotrifluoride (BTF) and its derivates) caused by the former owner management, Rimar, and PFAS contamination without bringing the matter to the attention of public institutions (NOE 2017). Despite being legally obligated to report the findings to the competent authorities (Region, Province, and Municipality), Miteni failed to transmit the investigations conducted multiple times in 1990, 1996, 2004, 2008, and 2009, in which contaminants were detected. Indeed, the chemical company has cultivated uncertainty among the affected residents by actively contributing to the propagation of what Wickham and Shriver (2021) called “coerced ignorance”, denying the problem and downplaying its severity on multiple occasions (Fazzini 2022). Similar to the Italian factory, chemical enterprises like DuPont, Chemours, and 3M were accused of fostering uncertainty by playing a role in generating and disseminating ignorance within the communities affected by PFAS (Cordner et al. 2019; Richter et al. 2021).

23The practice of blaming farmers follows the current regulatory frameworks emphasizing individual responsibility over systemic accountability, allowing public and private institutions to evade responsibility and reinforcing regulatory practices that shift burdens onto “smaller” actors. According to Lanzavecchia et al. (2022: 419), the PFAS pollution case in Veneto «illustrates how profit-driven companies may rationally choose to pollute when the anticipated profit outweighs the projected costs associated with environmental damage». Moreover, labelling individuals who express concerns about the effects of PFAS exposure as “alarmist” is an endeavour to undermine their credibility, serving as another method to normalise the toxic routinized exposure (Lapegna, Kunin 2023). However, as I believe that the farmers I met are not polluters, condemning the entire agricultural sector by generalizing responsibilities diverts attention from the actual sources of pollution, the Rimar-Miteni plant. Following Lapegna and Kunin (2023), I argue that the agricultural sector within the contaminated area develops in three main pathways of action: the absence of clear state regulation and assistance, the reliance on corporate self-regulation, and a laissez-faire approach that accentuates individual accountability. By invoking the words of David Harvey (2007: 3): «In so far as neoliberalism values market exchange as ‘an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide to all human action, and substituting for all previously held ethical beliefs’, it emphasises the significance of contractual relations in the marketplace». Indeed, contaminations represent the acknowledgement of «chemically induced precarity in the contemporary» (Bond 2021: 391), which appears to be structural within current socio-economic relations.

24Before meeting farmers, I was already aware that the affected communities had responded to the contamination by radically altering their lifestyles and habits. Menegatto et al. (2022) confirm this scenario, according to a father from the affected areas: «At the beginning, we eliminated local market foods, or in any case, any food that we knew came from the polluted area» (Ivi: 12). Thus, residents began to make more health-conscious decisions and embraced a “healthier way of living” to protect themselves and their loved ones (Menegatto et al. 2022). As a result, in the aftermath of the regional mapping process, finding themselves catapulted into the red zone was a dramatic experience for farmers. For them, being located in the most affected area means not only facing the uncertainty of invisible intruders – the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – but also being excluded and deprived of their societal role. According to Diego, “the concept of ‘kilometre zero’ had become a disadvantage. Therefore, we decided that if there was polluted water, we probably had to reconsider and change our location.” He was concerned about being a source of contamination, so he started to pay for annual well water analyses by himself. Diego discovered their well was in a low-PFAS area at the edge of the polluted aquifer. In contrast to other farmers, he opted to publish the analysis results on his business website. Nevertheless, in most cases, checking the presence of contaminants and publishing the analysis results was not enough to avoid being labelled as polluted. Eric explained that being present at the local markets with their products from the red zone “[...] was like having a star attached. [...] you were from [city], and [city] is a red zone. Okay? So, being from [city], within the red zone, meant really being marked, even now, even now”. While dealing with contaminations and toxic legacies, stigmatisation represents a challenging task that contributes to the intensification of social and environmental inequalities (Kryder-Reid, May 2023). For him, the comparison to the “Star of David” indicated the stigma and marginalisation his business endured when being labelled as contaminated. Among the farmers I encountered, this situation was prevalent. By recognising the municipalities of farming activities located in the red zone, clients prefer not to buy their products. As they were labelled as contaminated despite their effort to show a low level of PFAS by showing the results of analyses, this customer choice has been a harsh blow to farms. In many cases, the solution could have been to go to agricultural markets far from the impacted areas to take advantage of the distance. While discussing this potential strategy, Monica referred to a colleague who suggested she sell her products far from the contaminated areas. However, she did not agree to move to more distant markets, and her sales were impacted.

4.4 Silence and “Threshold Theory of Pollution”

25In the context of PFAS contamination, farmers have faced the consequences of this environmental disaster on their own. Public and private entities, such as municipalities and trade associations, have not provided support to farming activities. Consequently, what emerged consistently during my conversations is that PFAS testing on farming products and water has always been carried out on farmers’ initiatives. During these years, each business arbitrarily decided when, how, and to whom to turn to verify the presence of contaminants in their waters and vegetables. Due to the underlying situation characterised by fear and the novelty of the topic – additionally, there is an ongoing legal trial – I found it challenging to clearly understand if all the farmers I encountered had genuinely checked for the presence of PFAS in their farms. It is important to outline that, as indicated earlier, the information provided, and farmers’ actions often appeared contradictory. Each farm responded differently in its effort to detect and contain the spread of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, but all of them accepted the minimal presence of these contaminants. For instance, some farmers had their well water analysed, while others opted to directly test their products. As Francesco did, some even published their analyses in their shops. In contrast, Monica told me:

When I presented the analyses to the local health authority, they told me that I was one of the few who submitted them. However, I mean... I don’t mind... since I consume the products here, it’s right for both my protection and that of the customers because I put myself out there, I don’t work with other people in the shop and hide... I mean, and that’s fair (Monica).

26There has never been an obligation to share or submit analyses to local authorities. However, as Monica explained to me, she also published the analyses on social media, but she subsequently chose to retract them due to the “confusion” they caused among customers:

And so, we have also avoided posting them, not hiding them, precisely because they would be read... you don’t even know the initial parameters, you don’t know anything, and you don’t know the comparisons with others, so it doesn’t make any sense at all (Monica).

27The contradiction emerging from Monica’s words aptly represents the behaviour of the farmers I have encountered. In the absence of any institutional support and clear indications, their prevalent long-term strategy has been to avoid talking about the PFAS issue to safeguard their economic revenue. “Yes, to some extent, it has been mentioned less on TV, and also, we avoid discussing the issue, so it’s better not to talk about it... you know, the saying 'Out of sight, out of mind'... something like that...” (Adriana). Following the need to preserve the relations with customers, some farmers deliberately bypassed discussing the issue, refraining from mentioning any analyses and often glossing over the topic. I believe this is also one reason why most farmers I contacted either did not respond or declined my invitation to meet with them. Farmers found themselves subjected to a complex job blackmail, which has heavily affected part of the agricultural sector in these areas. Despite the conversations I was able to have with them, most of them I contacted refused to talk with me. For this reason, I consider the silences I met precious information. However, the concepts of silence, speech, and (in)visibility may be explored by taking into consideration the irregularity in which silence «takes the most multifaceted and ambiguous forms» (Samuels 2021: 500). Thus, it is fundamental to assert what silence meant in this research. According to Stefan Hirschauer (2006), those who embrace the ethnographic method encounter limits related to what can be articulated, encompassing areas of the «voiceless, the ineffable, the speechless, the indescribable, the pre-linguistic, the mute, and that which reveals itself wordlessly» (Ivi: 424). The key practical dilemma in ethnographic writing resides in the process of transposing intensely private aspects, such as one’s personal sensory perceptions, into the public domain of academia (Hirschauer 2006). Within the threatening and distressing context of the contaminated zones, speechlessness can be perceived as indescribable. From my point of view, the unspoken entails many different feelings for farmers. Silence, like PFAS exposure, is also influenced by the personal stories of individuals and their socio-cultural and political interactions. The majority of the farmers’ decisions were driven by the necessity to safeguard their agricultural productivity and income. Due to these reasons, many of them provided me with conflicting statements. Therefore, in my interactions, silence is also associated with the fact that my research partners were often tired and not inclined to discuss the topic. This is compounded by the frequent lack of understanding and general scepticism that I perceived during interviews. For instance, despite the efforts of building a new well, Adriana told me:

[...] people still didn’t trust us. Then there were those... I invited them to come to the farm to see the test results... but at some point, I stopped showing them the analyses because it was pointless. I mean, if you trust me and what I say, great, otherwise, so be it. There’s no point in showing you everything and still having you there with a sceptical face... [nervous laugh] (Adriana).

28What farmers experienced reflects what I believe is their overall underestimation of the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances by public actors who failed to provide clear information and prompt support. This follows PFAS’ slippery nature as residues that enables them to evade regulatory surveillance systems (Boudia et al. 2018). According to Diego, this contamination

[...] Is a disaster that should make us think about future issues of this kind, because there will be so many pollutants around, but until you specifically search for that pollutant, you never find it in the analyses ... that was the problem with PFAS ... No one ever looked for them, and they didn't even know they had to look for them (Diego).

29In this biogeochemical milieu, the regional and national governments displayed reluctance in setting limits. As in the US, where the institutional regulating response was “low and fragmented” (Refrew, Pearson 2021), the Italian authorities have been blamed for the same reasons by activist groups. At the European level, specific regulations concerning PFAS in food were established only in 2022. Indeed, Regulation (EU) 2022/2388 set maximum levels for certain PFAS compounds (PFOS, PFOA, PFNA, and PFHxS) in food for the first time. This regulation was subsequently updated by Regulation (EU) 2023/915, which further refined these limits and expanded the categories of food to which they apply.

30Needless to say, due to these conditions, the impacted communities found themselves in a surreal and unsettling situation, especially during the early years following the discovery of the contamination in 2013. PFAS’ multidimensional features give rise to dissonances among the affected communities, leading to stigma and isolation. If toxic layers are difficult to distinguish due to their blurring features, the “forever chemicals” regulatory regime and its application in the Veneto region are characterised by equally intertwined and complex qualities. Indeed, when it comes to the levels of contaminants in the blood of farmers and residents, or the concentration of PFAS in irrigation water, food, or soil, it always comes down to thresholds ‒ the core of environmental regulations ‒ which are mediated by technologies and infrastructures. As Max Liboiron (2021) has shown, thresholds are formalised at the intersection of policy, accountability, and responsibility, and they are linked with “allowable pollution”. This is the base of the permission-to-pollute system in which,

[...] specific quantities of contaminants are allowed legally in bodies of water, human bodies, air, food, and environments. This way of governing pollution is relatively new, but it is premised on an old colonial system of land relations where the land is a Resource (Liboiron 2021: 39).

31In the Veneto Region, within the framework of the neoliberal regulatory system, the anthropochemicals dumped by Rimar-Miteni are discharged into the environment, surpassing boundaries and adhering to the notions of “danger is in the dose” and the “solution to pollution is dilution” (Vandenberg 2014, in Liboiron 2021: 17). As a result, they become a threat to human and nonhuman health. Following Liboiron (2021), the petrochemical apparatus functions based on the concept of “assimilative capacity,” which has played a pivotal role in shaping what she calls the “permission-to-pollute system.” Within the industrial framework, the notion of “assimilative capacity” emerges as a primary driver of operations, suggesting that environments can tolerate a specific level of contaminants before adverse consequences become apparent. According to Liboiron’s reflections on the exploitation and pollution of Indigenous Land, the environment is seen as a “sink” by the colonial apparatus. Thus, when the quantity of discharged substances exceeds the limits established by regulatory surveillance systems, it signifies the crossing of the “threshold of harm”, also called the “threshold theory of pollution.” Considering this, it is the dosage that determines whether a substance is considered “safe.” For Liboiron, the assimilation theory effectively transforms bodies of water and various environments into reservoirs for waste disposal, embodying a colonial objective. Following this exegesis, by extending its impact across various environmental systems, the petrochemical violence linked to PFAS exposure spreads across “nebulous boundaries” in human and nonhuman bodies (Renfrew, Pearson 2021). Such a form of violence relies on a similar apparatus described by Liboiron but it is also exacerbated by the laissez-faire approach carried out by the regional and national institutions. In addition, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are characterised by unique chemical and technical properties and have been produced for decades and dumped into the environment without any regulations. As mentioned before, their presence was not declared despite being identified. Indeed, the limit in the PFAS-affected area develops through multiple levels. It has not only marked the biopolitical landscape by defining what and who falls inside or outside a specific – regulatory and chemical – space, but it is also intertwined with an intricate web of emotions and behaviours, encompassing stigmatisation and isolation directly linked to the concept of “solution to pollution is dilution”.

5. Conclusions

32The PFAS-impacted area is where various interconnected routinised toxicities are normalised and present in different temporal and spatial dimensions (Renfrew, Pearson 2021; Müller, Nielsen 2023). What I highlighted in this article is that fear, panic, and scepticism, along with contradictions, ambiguities, and hesitations experienced by farmers, all originate from the gap intensified by the lack of institutional initiatives and the reliance on individual choice and will inherent in the neoliberal system. In light of this complex terrain, farmers’ silence reflects institutional silence – the lack of support and initiatives – which has been deployed on many occasions during the last years. In this domino effect, the small-size farming sector appears to be isolated while facing social and economic distress together with the (eco)toxicological manifestation of the PFAS matrix. Within the impacted areas, contradictions emerge as a common practice. On one hand, there is a lack of trust in institutions and assurances. On the other hand, farmers disclose their analyses, seeking transparency with their customers, which institutions have avoided. During my fieldwork, it was clear to me that being in the orange and red zone has exacerbated stigmatisation among and towards the same impacted communities. Within the highly contaminated areas, the toxic layers of the Po Valley and its industrial-oriented metropolis intertwine with anthropogenic global warming consequences, such as drought and extreme climate events. Indeed, local and global issues collide exacerbating the vulnerable conditions of small-size farming activities. Thresholds and limits become blurred and generate different responses that, in many cases, turn into contradictory behaviours. At the same time, according to farmers, the institutional regulatory surveillance systems failed to offer proper solutions and indications.

33As already outlined, this research offers a partial overview of the experiences and perspectives of the agricultural sector of the contaminated areas in the Veneto region. Owing to this fact, many aspects are still overlooked and require further and more extended research. New studies should take into consideration the large network of actors that take part in the impacted farming sector. Bottom-up initiatives, such as PFAS-free markets and local buying groups (“Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale”), should be considered to understand how the farming community and its consumers have dealt together with the contamination. Moreover, despite their large presence within the contaminated land, the absence of wineries and livestock farms is a worthwhile indicator that needs to be explored. At the same time, specific agricultural practices to mitigate the presence of PFAS should be further investigated.

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1 In the late Sixties, Giannino Marzotto, a young entrepreneur, decided to open a laboratory, Rimar (Ricerche Marzotto), to research anti-stain chemical products using PFAS. The factory opened in Trissino, a small municipality in the Vicenza province, in the eart of the Veneto region. Marzotto’s goal was to improve the production of his family business and to preserve the waters of the local stream which were coloured by chemicals during the operations of the textile family factory (Fontana, Bressan 2009: 213). This businessman was a member of one of the most prominent Italian entrepreneurial families that, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, not only shaped the European textile and chemical sectors but also forever changed the Po Valley ecologies. Over the years, this factory has maintained an exchange of information with its US competitors, which will be at the centre of many PFAS contamination cases in the US. The history of Rimar - which later became Miteni Spa - is intertwined not only with these American corporations, such as Dupont and 3M, but also with worldwide chemical giants such as Enichem (today Eni SPA), Mitsubishi Chemical, International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG) – these three were the last owners of the Trissino’s chemical factory – and the Syensqo (known as Solvay Group). This latest company is still manufacturing these compounds in Alessandria, Piedmont having exchanged chemicals and information with the Rimar-Miteni for decades.

2 In 2016-2017, the Italian National Institute for Health (ISS), the Veneto Region Environmental Protection Agency (ARPAV), and the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Veneto conducted a PFAS food contamination monitoring program in the Veneto Region, titled “Sampling Plan for Food Testing for Perfluoroalkyl Substances.” This program sampled 1,248 food samples (614 plant-based, 634 animal-based) in the “red zone,” primarily from farms using well water. However, the food analysis relied on outdated 2017 EFSA data, missing new 2018 and 2020 EFSA thresholds. In 2018, EFSA introduced a Tolerable Weekly Intake (TWI) of 13 ng/kg for PFOS and 8 ng/kg for PFOA – drastically lower than previous limits (Greenpeace 2023). By 2020, EFSA further lowered the TWI for key PFAS compounds to 4.4 ng/kg (Schrenk et al. 2020). The Veneto Region initially withheld results until a court appeal by Mothers NoPFAS and Greenpeace Italia led to their public release in 2021 (Mamme NoPFAS, Greenpeace Italia 2021).

3 According to a regional ordinance, there is a temporary ban, until December 31, 2024, on the consumption of fish caught in the red zone municipalities which has been extended several times through the recent years (Regione Veneto 2023b).

4 This article summarises a part of my Master's thesis in Environmental Humanities, completed at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice during the 2022-2023 academic year.

5 I use “anthropochemicals” to indicate «all these human-made synthetic substances that reign over our everyday lives and environments» (Papadopoulos 2022: 117).

6 Thus far, based on my research, there are no public or private centres in Italy that provide analyses to determine the levels of PFAS in human blood serum and are accessible to the public.

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Notizia bibliografica digitale

Giovanni Lorenzi, «Farming in PFAS-Contaminated Areas: An Ethnographic Exploration within the Veneto Region»Archivio antropologico mediterraneo [Online], Anno XXVII, n. 26 (2) | 2024, online dal 20 décembre 2024, consultato il 21 mars 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/aam/9436; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/12xz3

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Giovanni Lorenzi

Università degli studi di Torino - Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società, lorenzigiovanni93@gmail.com

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Solamente il testo è utilizzabile con licenza CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Salvo diversa indicazione, per tutti agli altri elementi (illustrazioni, allegati importati) la copia non è autorizzata ("Tutti i diritti riservati").

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