Val di Vara: organic certified valley

A short blurb on a pretty amazing manifestation of Ligurian ingenuity; back in the 1980's, as their town was dying, the government of Varese Ligure had the bright idea to develop an entire organic territory, resulting in being the first valley to be Europe ISO certified. Saved the place. http://godzillavilla.com/

If you have a greater interest there's also a longer article from 2005:
http://www.theamericanmag.com/article_print.php?article=106&show_images=1