There were approximately two hundred and twenty thousand people present at the three-day Coldiretti Village in Venice. Residents, visitors from Veneto and the rest of Italy, and many foreigners crowded the spaces between Riva Sette Martiri and Giardini Napoleonici, to discover the great biodiversity of Italian agriculture. This is the estimate by Coldiretti at the end of the great peasant festival, with over two hundred stands including farmers’ market, street food, agrischool, farm animals, vegetable gardens, educational farms, agrichefs, laboratories, new technologies and workshops, where it was possible to taste, learn, play and have fun creating a strong bond between the countryside and the city.
For all three days, hundreds of members of Coldiretti Forlì-Cesena visited the Village, led by the leaders of the Federation of Forlì-Cesena, director Alessandro Corsini and vice president Andrea Ferrini. “The Coldiretti Village represents an important opportunity for producers and consumers to meet,” Ferrini said. “It is an essential moment to protect the true Made in Italy and promote the Mediterranean diet, two pillars of our agri-food culture that we must defend with determination.”
“The Venice Village was a great opportunity to raise awareness of the biodiversity and sustainability of Italian agriculture and that of the Veneto region in particular, a model based on the distinctiveness and quality of Made in Italy agri-food, the entrepreneurial spirit of young farmers and the frontiers of innovation,” said Coldiretti President Ettore Prandini. “We have created some discomfort for residents, but we also love this city and can rest assured that we will leave it better than we found it. Citizens have once again been able to experience first-hand the primacy of national agriculture that we must now defend and support against attempts to impose wrong and dangerous food models, from Nutriscore to synthetic food.”
Numerous representatives of the institutions and the economic world participated in the event. At the three days of the Coldiretti Village with president Prandini and general secretary Vincenzo Gesmundo, together with Carlo Salvan, president of Coldiretti Veneto, political personalities were present such as the vice president and foreign minister Antonio Tajani, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Francesco Lollobrigida, Luca De Carlo, president of the Senate Agriculture Commission, Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto Region, Luigi Brugnaro, Mayor of Venice, and Stefano Pisani, mayor of Pollica. This united front has lined up in defense of the Mediterranean Diet, the heritage of Made in Italy, against the attempts of multinationals to replace healthy and natural foods with ultra-processed products for which often not even the recipe is known.
The event also saw the participation of representatives from the world of economics and culture: Vinicio Mosè Vigilante, CEO of GSE, Matteo Zoppas, President of ICE, Giuseppina Riggio, Head of the Enilive Biorefinery in Venice, Massimiliano Cattozzi, Head of the Agribusiness Department of Intesa Sanpaolo, Eleonora Santi, Director of External Relations at Philip Morris Italia, Ivan Aggazio, Regional Director of Veneto Trenitalia, Gaetano Evangelisti, Head of Associations, Stakeholders and Territorial Policies at Enel Italia, Massimo Di Carlo, Deputy Director General – Director of Business at Cdp, Roberto Weber, President of Ixe’, Felice Adinolfi, Full Professor of Economics and Agricultural Policies at the University of Bologna, Luigi Scordamaglia, CEO of Filiera Italia, Giuseppe Campanile, Full Professor of Special Zootechnics at the University of Naples Federico II, and Angelo Mellone, Director of Day Time Entertainment – Rai. Famous faces from the entertainment world such as Anna Falchi, Massimiliano Ossini and Vittorio Brumotti contributed to making the event even more special.
Coldiretti and Filiera Italia have signed an important agreement with Cassa Depositi e Prestiti to support Italian agri-food companies. Innovative ideas from young farmers have been rewarded. The Village hosted the national finals of the Oscar Green, the award for young agricultural companies that have distinguished themselves in ensuring food and energy self-sufficiency and the sustainability of production. There was also space for the new census of the Sigilli di Campagna Amica, the products saved from extinction thanks to the commitment of Italian farmers who also represent a driving force from a tourism point of view. Focus on the damage caused by the blue crab, the killer of the seas that is devastating fish production on the Italian coasts, with the most serious situation in Veneto.
The solidarity of the suspended shopping was at the center of the event. The Campagna Amica Foundation donated a ton and a half of high-quality typical products, collected in the village market thanks to the solidarity initiative “Spesa Sospesa”. The packages will be distributed to families in difficulty through the parish of S. Elena and various local associations. The Patriarch of Venice, Monsignor Francesco Moraglia, officiated the celebration on Sunday. Hundreds of children participated in educational activities in the agriasilo promoted by the women of Coldiretti, where they learned to knead bread, to hoe the garden and the importance of healthy eating and doing sports. The farm animals were particularly loved by the little ones in the spaces of the Aia, the Italian Breeders Association. The theme of floriculture was also a great success.
Many people followed the lessons on home economics and ancient remedies for modern women promoted by the agricultural entrepreneurs of Coldiretti. There was also space for the initiatives of the senior Coldiretti. In Venice the event took place in an absolutely regular manner, with the highest levels of security despite the extraordinary participation of the public, thanks to the police, the prefect of Venice Darco Pellos and the Police Commissioner Gaetano Bonaccorso, with the police, carabinieri, guard of finance, the traffic police force, the fire brigade, the harbor master’s office, the navy and the air force which guaranteed the smooth running from land and sea, aided by cutting-edge control systems made available to them by Coldiretti, with drones and high resolution video surveillance systems.
Space for Made in Italy excellence at the table. The 8 euro menus with the best of Made in Italy at the table were very popular, where the pasta with Cavallino tomato with olives from the Garda Riviera, the Isolana risotto with Grana Padano Dop, the tortellini with Parmesan cream were very popular. Reggiano Dop, but also the 100% Italian meat from the grill, the zero km fish, the agri-gelato and all the Made in Italy street food such as the sandwiches with Asiago melt and zero km vegetables or the sandwich with Venetian soppressa. There was also a crowd at the large Campagna Amica market with around 100 companies offering the best of the Veneto and the rest of Italy at the table, from cheeses to cured meats, from honey to vegetables and jams, with a space dedicated to organic farming. Crowds of visitors also visited the Oleoteca and the Enoteca with tastings of extra virgin olive oil cocktails, wine and agricultural beer. There was also great interest in the activities carried out in the Campagna Amica cooking school with the Farmer Chefs and the “Judges for a Day” event with the public who voted for the traditional dishes.
