Mediterranean Life:
Exploring the Territory to Discover its Origins
Today, the inaugural day of this Mediterranean edition of our award-winning Boot Camp, we will be in Marina di Camerota on a journey to discover the treasures, values, and virtues of Mediterranean life, to understand the evolutionary processes of a lifestyle, the Mediterranean Diet, which has been recognized globally as both healthier and more sustainable.
Founded in the sixth century B.C., by the Focei, the same Greek population that founded the city of Elea — Velia, Marina di Camerota lies in an arc of coastline full of olive trees from the Saracen era, set between two small promontories surmounted by towers it is characterized by wild nature, Mediterranean scents, jagged coastline, coves with crystal clear waters, islets, watchtowers, caves of land and sea. It is an area overflowing with the mysterious charm that has its roots in prehistory.
“The origins” is the name of this stage in Marina di Camerota, thus emphasizing the immersion of participants in the historical roots of the Mediterranean diet, which in this destination clearly emerge through the archaeological findings, which have attracted international scientific interest, still present in the many Paleolithic caves in the area.
In particular, students will have the opportunity to visit two caves:
“Grotta della Cala”. The shape of this cave recalls an hourglass. Bone pebbles testify to the presence of our Neanderthal ancestors who inhabited the cave in the Middle Paleolithic. Then bequeathed to Homo Sapiens, the cave experienced a more systematic use. People lived by hunting at that time; for this reason various stone tools have been found, such as scrapers and bear tips, faunal remains, sea shells used as ornaments, bone artifacts, and hearths. The traces found in the site allow us to mentally reconstruct lifestyles, far from us 20,000 and 40,000 years ago.
“Grotta della Serratura”. The name is related to the characteristic shape of the opening, that of the lock of a door. Quite deep, the cave was inhabited during the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. Holes caused by small mollusks, the lithodomas, and grooves left by the sea water support the thesis that the cave of the Lock has been, over the millennia, submerged by water. Custodian of the remains of fauna, the cave bears signs of various climatic changes, such as the silting of the coast with the presence of ponds, which were then replenished by the sea in the Mesolithic period.
Ecological and integral regeneration: discovering sustainable agricultural practices
As you know we love to get our hands dirty and so, the Boot Camp includes a series of lessons in the field that will allow students to get to know the icons of the Mediterranean and understand the importance of their preservation for the very subsistence of the ecosystem.
APICULTURE
Visit to the Volpe Farm. Students will be accompanied by Pasquale, the last beekeeper of San Mauro Cilento, on this journey to discover biodiversity. An architect by education and profession, he educates people about the beauty of the social and architectural system of bees. During his 20 years of experience, he has passionately learned that through a social biomimicry approach, humans can learn from bees how an organized and functioning society works, how nature has slowly selected the best solution for the local environment, how synergies really work, and how to use nature-based solutions to restore the environment while also providing good food for people.
MILKING AND CHEESEMAKING
Visit the Chirico Estate, an innovative family-owned dairy that also produces biofuel. The farm is located in the municipality of Ascea, near the Archaeological Park of Velia, the ancient city of Elea, the favorite land of the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno. The air you breathe in the lands of Tenuta Chirico is that of the hills of Mediterranean scrub, typical of the National Park of Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni, oily with myrtle, mastic, wild fennel, and broom. The place will be the setting for a hands-on experience on the sustainable production of milk and cheese, learning how the green and circular economy can pave the way for the preservation of traditional food heritage.
SMALL FISHING
Visit to the Alici di Menaica company of Donatella Marino, a small family-run business that deals with the processing and sale of fish products and local fish preserved and processed according to ancient traditions. There is an ancient fishing technique, once widespread on all the Mediterranean coasts, which survives in a few places in Italy. One of these is Cilento, particularly in Marina di Pisciotta, a small village on the coast, halfway between Velia and Capo Palinuro, thanks to the work of a group of fishermen — no more than seven or eight boats — who go out to sea at night with a boat and a net (both are called menaica or menaide, formerly minaica). Salted menaica anchovies are distinguished by their light-colored flesh that tends to pink and their intense and delicate aroma, which makes them absolutely unique. Vittorio Rambaldo (owner of the Alici di Menaica Donatella Marino processing workshop) will guide the Boot Camp participants in a uniquely Mediterranean experience, discovering this ancient tradition.
REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
Visit to La Petrosa Farm. After a journey through organic and biodynamic farming systems, it now develops a regenerative agriculture cultivating a variety of crops, including olive trees, pistachios, legumes, local vegetables, but above all different varieties of cereals. A concept of regenerative agriculture inherited from the past and brought to light by the hard work of Salvatore Ceccarelli, an Italian geneticist, according to whom varieties are a set of seeds with a very diverse genetic heritage. By sowing a portion of the crop every year, farmers can count on the high rate of biodiversity found by spontaneous cross-pollination of flowers and natural genetic mutations, but above all they choose the environment — considering the cultivation systems, the micro and macro climate, the weather, pests and diseases, such as selective pressure that every year “chooses” the most suitable plants for the changing environment.
These farming systems provide a high rate of resilience and ultimately regenerate the soil, storing carbon within it, which in turn acts as a life generator and develops further resilience and reduces dependence on external inputs.
MEDICINAL PLANTS
The Campus is located in the heart of the National Park of Cilento Vallo di Diano and Alburni one of the largest nature reserves in Europe where, thanks to the many trekking routes, excursions and botanical walks, students will discover the dormant natural resources of Cilento and the officinal plants that grow spontaneously. The use of herbs, in the Mediterranean tradition, is based on a very broad concept of prevention, philosophically and ecologically; on the maintenance of health; on the local ecosystem as medicine, food as medicine and on the relationship of care, on the long-term “taking care.” It is an integral part of the Mediterranean cultural identity.
Ecological transition in schools
This year the Boot Camp will also be enriched by the presence of teachers and leaders of high schools working in vocational schools, training feeders, farmers, and chefs, for three days of training and co-design.
The Paideia Campus, in Pollica, is once again an experimental center of study and training for integral ecological regeneration, and proposes, at the beginning of the new school year, a training course designed for teachers, born from the collaboration between Future Food Institute and the I.I.S. Lazzaro Spallanzani of Castelfranco Emilia (MO), which aims to redefine the outgoing profiles of students, to regenerate Italian schools deeply marked by a year and a half of Integrated Digital Education, social distancing, and consequent deterioration of the relational fabric of young people.
The training method is the one promoted by the Future Food Institute: an inspiration phase, in which teachers retrace the steps of the development of Western philosophical thought at the Archaeological Park of Velia. This is followed by a phase of perspiration, in which they begin to define, in an inclusive and participatory way, the challenges of today’s schools. Finally, a phase of action, to outline and co-create in a Hackathon, together with their own students, already participants of the experimental intensive experiential training program “Trame Mediterranee,” the new profiles for young people, with the aim of accelerating the ecological transition in schools and giving the opportunity to the Italian secondary school children to get the right tools to understand the complexity of today’s society. Hence becoming ambassadors of change for sustainable and inclusive development.
The Future Food Institute is an international social enterprise and the cornerstone of the Future Food Ecosystem, an inclusive network and knowledge platform sparking positive change in the global food system by leveraging the power of education.
Through innovative, research-backed academic programs, boot camps, global missions, executive education, and school-based events, FF trains the next generation of changemakers, empowers communities, and engages government and industry in actionable innovation, catalyzing progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Learn more at www.futurefoodinsitute.org, join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Or attend a program through the FutureFood.Academy!
