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Ark of TAsTemappingFor preservationpieRo saRdopResident oF the slow Food Foundation FoR biodiveRsitySome call them niche products. Others, such as the sociologist Corrado Barberis, have defined them as messages in a bottle, reaching us from the past. The Italian Agriculture Minister has baptized them “PAT,” Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali (traditional food and agricultural products), while others designate them historic local foods. Slow Food calls them Ark products.food iS not oilThey are Italy’s traditional small-scale foods. So why have we not yet have come up with an unambiguous definition? The differences between the classifications are not solely nominal, and reflect more than just varying nuances of meaning. The “PAT” list of 4,500 products has reached its 13th revision and embraces all typical products, large- or small-scale, whether or not they are at risk of extinction, with or without PDO or PGI designations. Barberis’s “messages in a bottle” have an evocative impact, but84 almanaC© IVo danChEV