Manager: Alessandra Cioppi

External Funds: MASAF – Ministero dell’Agricoltura, della Sovranità alimentare e delle Foreste

Keywords: vegetable garden, history, food, migration, cooperation

Abstract

The project has as its common thread the reconstruction of the history of the garden and its products over the centuries, their origin, migration and spread, current production and eventual distribution,  becoming a system of labor integration, learning and transmission of a craft. With these specifics, the project intends to constitute a fundamental research laboratory for social, agricultural and bioagricultural sciences as an educational and insertion strategy, thanks to cross-disciplinary research, interdisciplinarity of skills and cooperation with institutional bodies, public administrations and trade associations.

Objectives

The project aims to learn about the genesis of the vegetable garden and its connection with people, between memories, knowledge and food cultures, and to disseminate the results in the area for the active involvement of communities. It is intended to carry out studies on the circulation and dissemination over time of foods, geographical indications, and the dynamics of changes resulting in the diversification of productions, dictated by the “material culture”, the “science of consumption,” and the “science of taste”. The study, training and practice of garden cultivation can be an indispensable tool within the Reception System, supporting migrants in the country to build a life project, and to integrate thenselves, and to search for enployment.