Il valore delle economie locali e la centralit? delle comunit? del cibo per una agricoltura buona, pulita e giusta

The article examines the sociological issues related to the changes in the methods of production and consumption of food and agricultural products which has occurred in the last fifty years in industrialized countries. In particular, starting from the rapport between the farmers of the past and the land, it is proposed to return to a sustainable form of production, avoiding desertification of the countryside and building a new rural sociality to meet the demands of new generations. To block the depopulation and desertification of the countryside there must be both a re-evaluation of the efficiency of agricultural systems (considering not only the monetary costs but also the ecological impact) and a shortening of the chain (the travel time of the product from the field to the table). It is necessary, therefore, to start from a healthy localism for all those types of foods that can be grown, raised and processed in limited geographical areas. All this is feasible through research for information and commitment of producers in describing their processes and movements of raw materials, thanks to the large-scale distribution - that however must rethink its system according to a greater localization - and also to ourselves and our desire to go back to being co-producers as once it was in peasant economies.