Casa delle Agriculture is a complex coalition, the combination of a volunteer-based organization, founded in 2013 and named after Tullia and Gino Girolomoni, and a farming co-op, started in 2018.

The CdA counts among its objectives the experimentation of new forms of local self-governing and the practice of “restanza,” novel ways of re-inhabiting and re-launching marginalized areas and towns suffering from de-population. This is meant to contrast the economic poverty that comes with grave consequences for local culture, education and prospects in general.

The focus of our activities is caring for the land, an objective in and of itself, as well as an instrument in forging a holistic model of development in the local community: we actively rehabilitate abandoned farmland and work to support biodiversity; we are also creating a local economy based on sustainable and quality agriculture, that is at the same time grassroots and not elitist; we practice social inclusion by engaging with the elderly, the disabled and the migrant community; we work to stimulate rural tourism connected with local farmland, food and walking trails; we seek to nurture inclusivity and free access to culture and art; we are committed to actively conducting eco-pedagogy especially for minors, but also for adults, and actively promoting legality (fighting organized crime) and social justice.

Energizing a vast territorial network of farmers, non-profits, local authorities, and educational institutions, Casa delle Agriculture embodies an agricultural and economic model that is designed to contrast in every possible way with those that lead to the abandonment and progressive poisoning of our local, that encourage abnormal amounts of sprawl and loss of biodiversity, that impoverish natural resources, above all the soil and the water. They stand in opposition to the forces that contribute to the exploitation of local labor, especially that of migrant workers, to the continued emigration of local youth, who leave the area in search of job opportunities, and to a greater fragility in the environmental and social landscape.

We are, in any case, hard at work, since “the world changes because of examples made, not opinions given.”