Introduction

Welcome to Helix Pomatia, a blog on the gastronomic politics of Italy that will probably be updated with all the indolent lethargy of its namesake. I've tried blogging before but could never make it past the fifth post. My success as a researcher hangs on changing my writing habits, though, so this blog comprises part of my attempt to become a little more prolific.





It's also an ideal way to keep my thoughts in order and invite some feedback as I travel around Northern Italy, collecting data for my PhD project at the University of Glasgow. My research relates broadly to urban to rural migration in Italy, but more specifically to 'back-to-the-land' migrants who have taken up agriculture after abandoning their urban origins. My interest in the subject was stimulated by joining the WWOOF and Help Exchange networks a few years ago. Joining these organisations as a volunteer gives access to directories of organic farms and other rural projects that offer free room and board in return for labour (usually 4-6 hours, 5 or 6 days a week). I noticed in the directories a surprisingly large number of farms that had been established (or restored) only recently, often by people entirely new to agriculture. How does an urbanite learn agriculture from scratch? How could entering agriculture be economically sustainable at a time when so much of European farming is dependent on subsidies? Is there something about particular regions – a structural explanation – that allows new farmers to subsist? Something in policy, perhaps, or a large market infrastructure for the kinds of produce that back-to-landers may gravitate toward?



I've started to investigate the relationship between new farmers and alternative food networks. This is a loosely-defined and hotly contested term, and I don't want to get bogged down in a debate about its appropriateness here. What I'm referring to, generally, are initiatives like buying cooperatives, farmers' markets, bartering schemes, co-ops and purchasing consortia such as those developed by Slow Food's Presidia project. Does the existence of these networks stimulate opportunities for new farmers, particularly those motivated by issues of sustainability, quality or social and economic justice? And, reciprocally, how are these initiatives sustained by back-to-the-landers?

So these are the key questions of my research, though to spare readers the tedium of too much academic pondering, I'd like this blog to address more than these issues. Basically, I'm a lover of food and a committed reformer of the highly destructive industrial food system, and my ramblings here will reflect more of my personal experiences and discoveries than the more arcane stuff that'll eventually find its way into a thesis. Essentially, it's another blog about stuff that interests the author. It took me a long time to get to that, didn't it? I can be verbose. You've been warned.