“We managed to stop them”: how European tomato producers resisted the Chinese ogre

In the Parma countryside, the tomatoes redden to the horizon. Under a gray sky, the plants crawl on the ground, dotted with scarlet fruits. A few kilometers away, it's impossible to miss the Mutti factory: giant tube of concentrate, huge pot of Polpa, even the robot that mows the lawn, everything wears the red associated with the famous agri-food giant. Outside, the smell of cooked tomatoes from the factory fills the air. At the beginning of September, the harvest is in full swing: trucks dump their loads of tomatoes onto conveyor belts which speed towards gigantic basins. They will then be transformed into pulp or concentrate, generally within two hours of their arrival on site.

Francesco Mutti, graying beard and red suspenders, watches over this ballet from a meeting room whose large windows overlook gigantic silver vats, from which plumes of steam rise...