When discussing my plans to study abroad at Temple Rome with friends and loved ones, there was one aspect of Italian culture that everyone always mentioned – the food. Italian food traditions hold a somewhat mythical status around the world, but they are by no means monolithic and contain so much more than just pizza, pasta, and gelato. At the same time, as a sociology major and environmental studies minor, one of my main motivations for studying abroad was to experience firsthand how a different culture approaches issues at the intersection of human well-being and environmental sustainability to apply those methods to the same issues my community faces back home. Since our global food systems are uniquely representative of this intersection, the best way for me to study both environmental and social sustainability abroad was to explore how Italian cultural food practices contribute to these goals.
To accomplish this, I focused on one Italian food tradition in particular: farmer-direct food markets. With the help of Temple Rome Staff, I used my Global Green Grant – an award given to students to undertake a project focusing on a sustainability issue specific to their host country while abroad – to plan an event during Stay Local Weekend – a combined effort between Temple Rome and Temple’s Offices of Sustainability and Education Abroad dedicated to promoting a more sustainable study abroad experience by encouraging students to stay in Rome for the weekend to reduce the carbon footprint of travel.
To further emphasize the role cultural food practices play in the larger Italian effort to promote sustainability, my professor, Barbara Parisi, and I led a group of Temple Rome students on a tour of a local farmer’s market operated by the Campagna Amica Foundation. Started in 2008 by Coldiretti, the association of Italian and European farmers, that supports farmers by connecting them directly to consumers through a network of markets around Italy, the foundation carries out initiatives that encourage Italian agriculture’s role in protecting Italy’s environment, traditions, culture, health, food security, equity, and access to fairly priced food. I was lucky enough to promote my event both in Professor Parisi’s class, “Food for Thought: Sociological Thinking about Food,” and on the Temple University Instagram, where I did a story takeover highlighting all of the unique opportunities of Stay Local Weekend.
For the tour, we all met on a Sunday morning at the Mercato Campagna Amica, located just down the street from the historic ancient Roman mass entertainment venue, the Circus Maximus. In this way, the market itself represented a larger Roman tradition of seamlessly layering antiquity and modernity. We started our tour with a local latteria, or cheese shop, and sampled some stracchino upon suggestion from the farmer himself. None of us students had tried it before, but it was fresh, soft, and delicious. We continued to a panetteria selling fresh baked breads and cookies made with a diverse range of whole-grain flours.
By offering products like fresh, local cheese, meat, produce, baked goods, pasta, grains, legumes, and preserves from over 60 farms sold directly by the farmers producing them, this market gave us the opportunity to connect more deeply with food and experience firsthand the benefits of shorter food chains – for farmers, people, and the planet. This can be illustrated using the example of the baker. Because the producers sell directly to local consumers, they can specialize in cultivating a wider variety of heritage grains and can also keep those grains whole because the shorter distance between producer and consumer doesn’t require refining for preservation. This is not only more profitable for the farmer, but healthier, more affordable for the consumer, and more environmentally sustainable as it increases biodiversity and reduces the CO2 emissions of transporting food further away.
Through real-world examples like these, students were able to see how this seemingly simple Italian tradition presents an opportunity for them to support more sustainable food systems overall. Before making our final purchases and parting ways, our group stopped for lunch in the outdoor portion of the market where farmers sell freshly cooked dishes. While slowing down to share a meal prepared with local ingredients and traditional methods, we discussed the differences between shopping in farmer-direct markets in Italy and our food shopping experiences in the U.S.
While we saw how supporting producers directly is better for people, farmers, and the planet, we noted how many of us in the U.S. don’t have access to these types of markets due to financial or location constraints. Cultural food traditions play a huge role in supporting farmer-direct markets in Italy, but institutional support for small farmers from organizations like Campagna Amica, Coldiretti, and even the Italian Government itself makes them even more accessible. These institutional frameworks for supporting local farmers’ markets provide us with an example of how to advocate for more sustainable food systems back home in the U.S., beyond just the individual level.
In this way, by exemplifying the environmental and social benefits of Italian food practices and shedding light on the institutions that support them, touring the Mercato Campagna Amica gave us the tools to pursue sustainability through food both during our study abroad experience and back home. I want to thank Professor Barbara Parisi, Temple’s offices of Education Abroad and Sustainability, and Temple Rome for supporting me in planning and executing this event. There is truly nothing more personally or professionally rewarding for me than fostering ongoing relationships of reciprocity between people and the land that sustains them, and this grant allowed me to pursue that goal.
Find out how other students are exploring sustainability issues abroad.