According to the most common stereotypes, the land of Sicily has been dedicated for centuries to agriculture. This is not always true; in fact most of the cultivated land in the countryside have undergone a gradual and steady abandonment in the last 30-40 years. Farmers and small producers, tired and hardly enriched sent their children in the city, studying as a doctor, lawyer, engineer, teacher. Until a few decades ago, actually, missing industries, the alternatives to farming were in fact the public services: schools, hospitals, courts. And today? Today we are witnessing a curious reversal: from the cities to the countryside and in those fields from which a few decades earlier had fled. Yes they are graduates, but also farmers. What has changed? It ‘s just the result of the crisis we are experiencing? Or is there even more? Conjugate culture to farming today it seems to be a growing trend. It is not anymore the work of the ancestor, when being a farmer was almost being a “slaves” of their lands. Today the farmers coming from the cities make use of new technologies, they create networks with other farmers, and they establish fresh and new synergies between small producers to add values to their product and mainly to their lives. At least so say the doctors-farmers today.
Text Valeria Monti