The Mediterranean Agroecology Caravan

Our next stop was at Mirko’s and Sara’s cheesemaking farm in southwest Serbia. We took a mountain road near the Bosnian border to reach Mirko’s farm. This farm, established generations ago by his family, is located on the snowy outskirts of the village. Mirko is a self-trained, young cheesemaker who made many changes to his parents’ dairy farm.

Here we are at the last podcast of our series Mediterranean agroecology for women, in this podcast you can listen to Roberta Billitteri's testimony. Roberta has a farm in the Sicilian hinterland, on the Madonie Mountains, where, with her project the taste of colours, she produces quality food, rooted in Sicilian agrobiodiversity and gastronomy. Roberta is also the first producer on the national board of Slow food. Therefore, it is both through the work on the territory where she lives and works, and in the national network, that Roberta tells us about her experience of leadership, with a sensitive and capable look at the potential of a cooperative and collectivist approach. Roberta, contributes in our podcast journey, and restores meaning to the issue of gender, but also to the role of the leader, in the agri-food networks that we see as sustainable.

We continue with our podcast series and this time we are delighted to introduce Francesca Ercoli of the Il Salto Azienda Agricola Project. Francesca manages to tell us not only how she and her partner managed to transform a small piece of land, in a landscape characterised by wheat monoculture, into a multifunctional agro-ecological farm that does production and training. Her testimony makes us understand the challenge of generational clashes in the agrarian world. Francesca also succeeds in giving us an interesting insight into the complementarity between male and female and the power of complementarity in the family that practices peasant agriculture.  Certainly, Francesca, like Marta, brings to light the limits of social policies in the agrarian world, relating to motherhood and fatherhood, an essential element that is increasingly emerging to revitalise and transform our agrifood system. The vision of leadership that this testimony gives us is accompanied by the ability to receive 'continuous feedback' with all those with whom the project continuously dialogues, grows and builds community.  In short, Francesca explains to us, among other things, the steps that lead to an agroecological community and this too seems to us an essential contribution to our discussion on Mediterranean agroecology.

Here is the second podcast in the series "Mediterranean agroecology for women", that is, the second of a cycle of four podcasts recorded together with women who talk to us about 4 very interesting and different agroecology projects. Today Martina Lo Cascio speaks to us, active in the Contadinazioni collective and in the Fuori Mercato network. The story of these projects brings out important aspects of agroecology, such as solidarity between workers, access to quality food, the development of the ability to work independently from vertical and unsustainable labor systems. When we talk about social agroecology, an essential aspect of agroecology, we also talk about this. We are therefore excited to present production, distribution, trade unionism and networking practices, which confirm that it can be done. What emerges, even from this testimony, is a vision of leadership that tries to cleanse itself of the ego and that tries to put together, not without difficulty, technical intelligence with the emotional one. The difficulties, of course, are also of gender. It emerges from the interview that some of these come from those characteristics that the patriarchal approach to leadership has identified as aspects of authority. Perhaps these are the same difficulties that a "feminist leadership", rather than female, as Martina specifies, can and must deconstruct. Martina also helps us to reflect on something too little discussed in our networks, intersectionality, that is, that privilege, as well as deprivation and conflict, elements to pay attention to for true sustainability, are always to be looked at through different "glasses" worn. at the same time, and which always condition us: not only the gender but the ethnic group and the socio-economic class to which we belong. Martina works as a researcher studying the agri-food chains, the conflicts and contradictions that arise in these. Tireless, she contributes with her work of social and political activism to the existence of local and network projects that allow agroecology to lead us all towards more social justice. For all these elements, and others, that Martina's testimony brings, we invite you to listen. Thanks to "Formidable Vegetable" for the song "Get together" used in the podcast The podcast was created as part of the Erasmus Plus MedCaravan project

Deafal's contribution to this March 8th is the first of a cycle of 4 podcasts recorded together with women who tell us about 4 interesting and different agroecology projects. Their voices tell, on the one hand, how agroecology is interpreted daily through objectives and practices. On the other hand, some aspects of how the gender issue intersects in daily and professional life and presents itself in ways that break stereotypes crystallized in the rural and agri-food world. Thanks to "Formidable Vegetable" for the song "Get together" In the first podcast of this series, we will hear Marta Baggagera from the Cascina Baggagera project, located between Monza and Lecco. The project, as she defines it, is a "somewhat varied" agricultural and livestock farm where between 15 and 20 people work on 25 hectares. They work with goats, chickens, pigs, some fruit trees, cereals and forage. . "An organic company that has always been oriented beyond organic for some years because organic is little compared to everything that is agroecology, that is, environmental sustainability, social ethics and energy." The Cascina Baggagera is also an agritourism, which offers tastings, and a non-profit association that takes care of disabled children. The sale is almost entirely direct, for the "choice of letting the consumer live the company." In fact, as Marta says "having the consumers involved showed more and more the benefits than the negative things of this choice ”. https://www.bagaggera.eu/ https://www.facebook.com/bagaggera The podcast is part of the Erasmus + Medcaravan project, Agroecological Caravan of the Mediterranean, of which Deafal is the leader, and which intends to enhance the agroecological knowledge and practices of the rural communities of the Mediterranean.

In this episode, we speak to several organisations about how they work with agroecology and what it means for farmers, consumers and communities.