EL DILEMA AGROALIMENTARIO CONTEMPORÁNEO: SI LA CIUDAD PROPONE, ¿EL CAMPO APORTA?

Durante décadas, la ciudad ha creado modelos alimentarios que requieren que el campo satisfaga una demanda creciente a través de reconversiones cada vez más autorizadas por la agenda agrícola y propiedades rurales más competitivas. Sin embargo, la aceleración actual del proceso de concentración de la tierra y la dramática experiencia de la pandemia de COVID 19 nos ha obligado a redefinir la relación ciudad-campo, que ha sido cuestionada desde hace algunos años en varios documentos de la FAO. (Organización de las Naciones Unidad para la Alimentación y la Agricultura) y la UE (Unión Europea). Basado en el itinerario de la encuesta GECOAGRI-LANDITALY (Geografía comparada de áreas agrícolas europeas y no europeas), una herramienta probada para leer las peculiaridades locales, los autores demuestran lo fácil que es reconocer qué tierras agrícolas pueden cumplir mejor la función de garantizar la seguridad alimentaria. y proteger la calidad y originalidad de los alimentos tradicionales. La propuesta final es iniciar una nueva política agroalimentaria que ya no parte de la demanda formulada por la ciudad, sino que, revirtiendo el rumbo de esta vieja relación, parte de la disponibilidad de productos que ofrece el campo con miras a reeducar el consumo y promover la sostenibilidad de las prácticas agrícolas

La storia dell’agricoltura e del paesaggio rurale italiano nelle fonti cartografiche del XX secolo

Gli Autori, consapevoli dell’importante valore euristico delle fonte documentarie e del ruolo unico e prezioso che l’iconografia cartografica storica assume per la ricostruzione del paesaggio agrario italiano del Novecento, oggi in larga parte eroso dal tempo e dall’uomo, propongono una accurata selezione di immagini cartografiche scelte dalle Serie IGM (Serie 25; 25 DB; 25 V; 50; 50 L; 100V), utili non soltanto a conoscere strutture insediative, organizzative, economico-sociali e culturali del passato, ma anche a riscoprire quel tessuto paesaggistico, oggi ammirato e invidiato a scala planetaria, purtroppo e in troppi casi eroso e a rischio di estinzione, sul quale ogni intervento di recupero e/o di valorizzazione potrà e dovrà essere programmato solo a partire e grazie alla documentazione storico-cartografica di cui disponiamo

In attesa dei risultati dell’ultimo Censimento generale dell’agricoltura. Come utilizzare i dati aderendo alla realtà territoriale: riflessioni di metodo

A partire dal 2022 la rilevazione del censimento generale dell’agricoltura italiana diventerà “permanente” e cambierà anche la modalità di raccolta dei dati, che verranno ottenuti non più intervistando l’universo delle aziende agricole italiane, ma le sole aziende selezionate che compongono il campione rappresentativo ottenuto. Gli autori riflettono sul nuovo modello di rilevamento dei dati e su quanto quest'ultimo sia in grado di rispondere adeguatamente tanto alle reali esigenze della Politica agricola comunitaria (PAC), quanto a quelle espresse dalla Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) che auspica rilevamenti funzionali a consentire le necessarie comparazioni tra le diverse aree e i diversi Stati del pianeta, precisando peraltro che solo i confronti tra realtà agricole diverse consentono di mettere in tutta evidenza il ruolo dei piccoli agricoltori

Bioenergy, Land Grabbing and Food Sovereignty: a Geographical Reflection

If the energetic transition towards new sources of renewable energy is now an obligatory and necessary process, as repeatedly recalled by European directives and international agreements, the methods of implementation and the dynamics underlying the change in the energy paradigm do not appear as sustainable. Analysing the spread and the results produced by the processes of land acquisition for bioenergy, major economic, environ- mental, social and territorial imbalances emerge in relation to the diversity of regional contexts, on the cost-benefit ratio of bioenergy sources. The authors are aware of the opportunities and at the same time of the threats arising from the processes taking place in the countryside, both in European countries and in developing countries. They reflect on the need to combine the biomass energy transition with the latest agricultural revolution, aimed at safeguarding: biodiversity, food sovereignty, quality productions and rural landscapes. In order to be able to enhance the elements of positivity and reduce those of conflict, it is always useful to first consider the specific conditions of each regional agricultural reality

The phenomenon of land concentration in Europe: the Italian case study of local agricultural systems analyzed through GECOAGRI LANDITALY survey methodology

Following the global economic crisis, there has been a real rush to purchase land in the EU, giving rise to the so-called phenomenon of land concentration, shown by the increase of large companies (over 100 hectares) and a disadvantage to the lower ones (10 hectares), thus compromising family-run farms and the entire agri-food chain. In addition to the academic world that is studying and monitoring this phenomenon, the same European Parliament has also taken action through studies and resolutions and has begun to deal with what we could call a real re-breeding of agricultural systems that concentrating land ownership in the hands of a few companies, often driven by economic and financial interests, compromises the sustainability of agricultural systems and its multi-functionality and harms the fundamental rights to access to land and property recognized by the European Charter of Rights and contemplated by the EU member states themselves. In response to this status quo it is desired through the Investigation Methodology (deposited SIAE No 2007005663) of the inter-university research group «GECOAGRI LANDITALY», already widely tested and applied, to record the new structural profiles of the Italian farmland. For this contribution we will use one of the characteristics of the «structural» method that is so defined because it investigates the farm through its constituent elements. The comparison through the graphical representation of some values allows us to look at the Italian agricultural reality that in some ways represents a unique study laboratory, almost paradigmatic, from whose company structures, emerge the problematic of the rural world and of the Food-Agriculture-Environment relationship

The complex cartography of liquid phenomena: land grabbing geography

La complessa e problematica diffusione spaziale del fenomeno liquido land grabbing offre agli Autori l’occasione non soltanto per indicare l’itinerario scientifico con cui è possibile superare la difficoltà di conoscere i luoghi da cui partono e quelli in cui si consuma il processo di accaparramento delle terre, ma anche l’opportunità di riflettere sulla funzione epistemologica della cartografia. L’articolo spiega infatti perché le rappresentazioni tematiche sono utili, oltre che a palesare visivamente la distribuzione dei fenomeni esaminati, anche a spingere le indagini verso l’interpretazione dei loro significati più nascosti. Dietro gran parte delle negoziazioni per l’acquisizione delle terre si celano infatti rapporti compositi che vedono protagonisti gruppi economici e finanziari di Stati, imprese e società, mossi da interessi declinati alla crescita finanziaria piuttosto che allo sviluppo economico sostenibile. Pochi, incompleti e talora discordanti sono i dati quantitativi del fenomeno che gli Autori, dopo un’attenta analisi ed elaborazione critica, hanno georeferito. Le rappresentazioni cartografiche che ne sono scaturite hanno delineato il complesso e caleidoscopico mondo del land grabbing che a scala mondiale disegna non solo le scontate direttrici di matrice colonialista Nord-Sud, ma anche quelle di nuova generazione Sud-Sud, Nord-Nord e Sud-Nord. Le vecchie e nuove traiettorie confermano che il fenomeno dell’accaparramento delle terre si è ormai globalizzato coinvolgendo, con ruoli e funzioni diverse, la gran parte dei paesi del mondo e disegnando una nuova geografia, dove i confini tra paesi predati e predatori sono meno netti e più liquidi e dove la linea di demarcazione, che un tempo poteva corrispondere a quella dell’equatore geografico, è venuta a mancare in quanto alcuni paesi preda sono al tempo stesso anche predatori. L’emersione di questi nuovi flussi impone di fare chiarezza su alcune indicazioni contradditorie delle politiche agricole internazionali in particolare quelle farisaicamente preoccupate di produrre biocarburanti estendendo le colture no food e scarsamente attente agli appetiti speculativi del land grabbing che sottraggono risorse vitali alle popolazioni rurali costringendole ad abbandonare le loro terre e ad emigrare.The complex and problematic spatial diffusion of the liquid land grabbing phenomenon offers the AA not only the opportunity to indicate the scientific itinerary with which it is possible to overcome the difficulty of knowing the places from which they originate and those in which the process of land grabbing takes place, but also the opportunity to reflect on the epistemological function of cartography. The article explains why the thematic representations are useful, as well as visually revealing the distribution of the phenomena examined, also to push the investigations towards the interpretation of their most hidden meanings. Behind most of the land acquisition negotiations lie mixed relationships involving economic and from state financial groups; businesses and companies, driven by declining interests in financial growth rather than sustainable economic development. The Authors, after careful analysis and critical elaboration, have geo-referenced, incomplete and contrasting quantitative data of the phenomenon. The cartographic representations that have arisen have outlined the complex and kaleidoscopic world of land grabbing that on a global scale not only outlines the obvious directions of colonialist North-South, but also those of new generation South-South, North-North and SouthNorth. The old and new trajectories confirm that the phenomenon of land grabbing has become globalized by now involving, with different roles and functions, most of the countries of the world and designing a new geography, where the boundaries between predated and predatory countries are less strict and more flowing and where the demarcation line, which at one time could have corresponded geographically to that of the equator, has failed as some prey countries are also predators. The emergence of these new flows makes it necessary to clarify some of the contradictory indications of international agricultural policies, in particular those hypocritically concerned with producing biofuels by extending no food cultivations and are barely attentive to the speculative appetites for land grabbing that take vital resources from the rural populations forcing them to leave their lands and emigrate

L’AGROALIMENTARE ITALIANO TRA GLOBALE E LOCALE: LE ABITUDINI ALIMENTARI PRIMA E DURANTE LA PANDEMIA VIRUS COVID-19

The Italian agri-food industry between global and local: food habits before and during the pandemic virus Covid-19. – The pandemic generated by the virus known as Covid-19 is an expression of an unbalanced relationship between man and environment on which geography is called to investigate and also to redefine the spaces of intervention. It will be useful to propose the adoption of a trasncalar point of view that, if in one way widens the horizon to the entire globe in a contagion and in a need for collaboration that do not recognize nor can allow us to raise limits, on the other hand, it becomes a metaphor and a warning to create a new ecology and new social political relations to weave as much at a global level as at a local and personal level. From the forced isolation – due to the rules of social distancing adopted in many European and non – European states – paradoxically emerged a glocal dialectic to interpret. As can be seen from observing what is happening in the Italian agri-food sector, on one hand we are forced to open our economic spaces recognizing the indispensable contribution of immigrant labour for the cultivation and harvest in the fields. On the other hand we are led to close the horizon of our primary needs without being able to address the question to our trusted provider and/or topographically closer even through the network that puts us in contact with the entire rural world. The authors, also thanks to the results of the direct survey, conducted on the purchases and the alimentary habits of the families during the pandemic, underline the opportunities of growth and valorisation of the Italian agricultural and food sector