XXVth ESRS Congress

29 July 1 August 2013 in Florence, Italy

Sustainable local food systems for rural resilience in time of crisis.

The case of the Solidarity Economy Rural District of the Southern Agricultural Park of Milan
Alessandra Corrado1

Abstract In time of crisis changes in agriculture and

farming as well as the emergence of grassroots innovations based on social cooperation and collective
learning are contributing to the organization of local
food systems, oriented to a multidimensional sustainability. This paper analyse the case of the Solidarity
Economy Rural District of the Southern Agricultural
Park of Milan as an example of this kind of process of
transition in agriculture in time of crisis. If on the one
hand these changes are boosted by the growing demand for quality life expressed by citizens, or by critical consumers, in the other hand the reproduction
strategies of small and medium scale farms appear to
be fundamental for the resilience of rural and periurban areas 1.

INTRODUCTION
The transition process in agriculture is made up of
differentiated trajectories of development. Repeasantization and relocalization of food production and
consumption characterize one of them. Changes in
agriculture and farming as well as the emergence of
grassroots innovations (Seyfang and Smith 2007)
based on social cooperation and collective learning
are contributing to the organization of local food systems, oriented to a multidimensional sustainability,
that is economic, environmental and social.
These process are related on: a) the resilience of the
economic, social and environmental fabric of rural
and peri-urban areas, that is strictly connected to
the reproduction of small and medium scale farms
and, as a consequence, to their income sustainability
and generating capacity (Dewulf et al. 2009); b) the
growing demand for quality life expressed by citizens, in terms of food security, viability of rurality,
leisure and sociability, well-being.
This hypothesis will be test by the analysis of the
case study of the Solidarity Economy Rural District
(Distretto di Economia Solidale, DESR) of the Southern Agricultural Park of Milan (Parco Agricolo Sud Milano, PASM) in Italy.

METHODOLOGY
The empirical research has been carried out by qualitative methods in order to investigate and understand subjective process and dynamics of collective
1

Alessandra Corrado is from the University of Calabria, Department of

Political and Social Sciences, Rende, Italy (a.corrado@unical.it).

organization that have been hypothesized to be the

factors sustaining changes in food production and
consumption process at local level. The main research focus has been on farmers localized in Milan
province - in particular in the Ticino Park and the
Southern Agricultural Park of Milan - collaborating
inside the DESR-PAMS by the participation in food
networks, collective projects and production platforms.
The DESR has been created in 2008, by the common
initiative of one of the first organic farm inside the
PASM, the Solidarity-based Purchase Group(Gruppo
di Acquisto Solidale, GAS) Baggio (the name of a
neighborhood localized in the south-west zone of Milan), the national Network of Solidarity Economy.
Today the DESR has 20 organic farms (certified, not
certified and in conversion), more than 40 GAS, ethical finance associations, 6 Municipalities and other
actors.
The aim of the Distretto di Economia Solidale (DES)
is to build a local network of different subjects promoting critical consumption and solidarity economy,
that is alternative economic circuits, inspired to solidarity, reciprocity, ethic principles and sustainability.
This system of relations aims to valorize local resources, sustain incomes, create labor opportunities
and to ensure Milan food sovereignty, that is the
satisfaction of food and quality life needs in the metropolitan area by the reconstruction of the urban-rural relationship and local markets.
The specific aims of the DESR-PASM is the safeguard
and requalification of the Agricultural Park the biggest in Europe, with 47.000 hectares, 61 Municipalities, 1400 farms. The main risks for it are the urban
sprawl, the deactivation and abandon of agriculture,
the new infrastructures, the agro-fuels speculations,
the structural (agro-food) crisis, the demand for
changing the boundaries of the Park, the land-rent
escalation (a lot of farmers as tenant).
According to the 2010 census, of 1400 farms just
576 are into action. The most representative have
10-50 hectares (15% of the total SAU inside the
Park). The farms biggest than 100 hectares are 84
(16% of the total) but represent the 55% of the total SAU.
In order to sustain the agriculture of the Park and
the income of local farms, the requalification of agri-

XXVth ESRS Congress

29 July 1 August 2013 in Florence, Italy

food consumption and production, the promotion of

direct selling and processing in farm, of multifunctionality, and of agro-biodiversity (vs. rice and cereals monocultures, and intensive breeding) are the
main strategies.
RURAL RESILIANCE

In time of crisis, rural resilience depends on farms

capacity of reproduction and resources management, combining different types of knowledge for
learning, creating the opportunities for self-organization and renewal.
Field research results highlight how new subjectivities as critical producers and forms of social cooperation are developing in this process of transition as
fundamental elements for the organization of sustainable local food systems.
Critical producers are men and women of 35-55
years old and with a medium-high level of education. There are two types of them: they are beginner that is new peasants without agrarian origin, or
reformed entrepreneurs - until now working in a
very vertically integrated industrial system of production (van der Ploeg 2008) - changing after an
identity or/and farm crisis. The beginners have very
different characteristics among them. They have
moved in agriculture because of their love for nature
or because tired for the frenetic urban living or for
precarious or dependent jobs. Often they are land
owners (but the youngest are tenant). They have
learnt new skills by practicing or cooperating
(Brunori et. Al. 2011) and have started their new activity with organic or biodynamic agriculture. But for
the reformed entrepreneurs, repeasantization is a
strategy to face the crisis, that is economic as well
as of identity. Often they are breeders that, sometimes in conflict with their fathers-entrepreneurs,
replacing them have converted the model of farming: sizing the livestock, converting to agro-ecology
or organic agriculture, differentiating activities, internalizing processing activities, developing direct
selling, cooperating in local networks.
Sustainability instead of productivity, diversity instead of specialization, cooperation instead of competitiveness, autonomy instead of efficiency are the
new farming principles.
Multifunctional restructuring is based on a new division of labor inside the family group. The generation
turnover is very important for facing the crisis.
However the different forms of social cooperation
and networks are fundamental in order to promote
direct selling but also collective production, and local
food systems, participative guarantee systems forms
of social agriculture.
An important contribution for these transformations
comes also from the new trend in consumption and
from GASs involved in co-production process and in
the organization of local food systems.
Inside the DESR PAMS, producers are involved in:
a) collective shops (BuonMercato shop in Corsico);
b) consortia created in different zones of the metro-

politan areas, for organizing production and logistic

services directly collaborating with local GASs.
CONCLUSION

The analysis of the DESR-PAMS case contributes to

the understanding of the conditions and possibilities
for the organization of food systems based on a different localization of transaction in time and space,
that is a geographic/spatial proximity but also an organized proximity by different social practices and
relational forms for supporting logistic infrastructures and co-production.
Local food systems are sustainable: 1) economically,
for the redistribution of the added value produced at
local level; 2) environmentally, for organic conversion, biodiversity safeguard, landscape and territorial
management; 3) socially, for the development of
forms of cooperation and reciprocity, of new public
spaces, new social services and the contribution at
the quality of life.
Policies for local and rural development can support
farm transition, but local food networks and collective organization seem to be very important factors
for rural resilience.

REFERENCES
Brunori, G., Rossi, A. and Malandrin, V. (2011). Coproducing Transition: Innovation Processes in Farms
Adhering to Solidarity-based Purchase Groups (GAS)
in Tuscany, Italy. International Journal of Sociology
of Agriculture and Food 18(1): 28-53.
Dewulf, A.E., Termeer, C.J.A.M., Werkman, E.A.,
Breeman G.R.P.J. and Poppe, K.J. (2009). Introduction. In: K. J. Poppe, K. Termeer and M. Slingerland
(eds). Transitions towards sustainable agriculture
and food chains in peri-urban areas. Wageningen:
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Ploeg van der, J. D. (2008). The New Peasantries:
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of Empire and Globalization. London: Earthscan.
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