Food Production in Ecovillages: From the Earth to the Plate
IN ENGLISH
REMOTELY
TIME: 6pm – 7.30PM
By: Genny Carraro
Ecovillages are human-scale settlements consciously designed through participatory processes to create regenerative communities and lifestyles. Ecovillages work with the four dimensions of sustainability: social, economic, ecological and cultural. The various forms of relationship present in an ecovillage enable people to get to know each other and themselves better and to understand the complexity of living systems, human and otherwise, as well as to learn about the essence of community life, cooperation and interdependence.
By observing nature and living systems, these communities can create virtuous cycles that not only contribute to environmental regeneration but also to community empowerment and to strengthening local economies and establishing the foundations of a regenerative culture. One of the main ecovillage goals is to regenerate social and natural environments through communal living, re-establishing a dimension of proximity with the land and the natural environment.
Environmental ecology is pursued through a diversity of practices, with common features including green building restoration, water conservation, self-produced energy and self‐sufficient food production through soil regeneration and alternative farming methods, such as permaculture and organic farming practices. The food style adopted in ecovillages is not to be interpreted as an antagonist trend against the processes of food standardization, nor simply as a radical stance in favor of a specific type of critical consumption as short-chain, local and organic farming.
The salient feature of the food style adopted by ecovillages is the claim of the duty and right to care for and regenerate the land and to self-produce one’s own food while respecting local products and traditions. It tackles issues such as food sovereignty, social justice, the promotion of a different economic model based on the idea of reciprocity and the right to live well, in the full satisfaction of one’s own desires.
This attitude allows people to build relationships of sharing and socialization both inside and outside of these communities, resulting in alternative economic networks and webs of solidarity, which are essential to ensuring community survival and promoting individual and collective well-being. This presentation will explore the role of sustainable practices in earth care and food production in ecovillages, situating them in the context of ecovillages as new countercultural phenomena that propose an alternative sustainable lifestyle from the soil up.
We have adapted the organization of Seminars and Conferences in respect of the government health provisions to guarantee strict compliance from all those involved in the academic experience (students, teachers, administrative staff), in an effort to safeguard everyone’s safety.
For this reason all the conferences will take place remotely and will be recorded; each of them will have a virtual classroom available on the BlackBoard e-learning platform.