These students dedicated their Project Week to hiking and sustainability
Klara (Germany) and Valentina (Italy) were the leaders of SusCo – the College Sustainability Council – in 2021 so when the time came for students to submit proposals for Project Week they knew they wanted to organise something that involved being in nature and learning more about sustainability.
«Valentina is from this region», says Klara
Zagara is a biodynamic and organic farm located in Aveacco (Colloredo di Monte Albano), in the province of Udine. The young owners, Erica and Fabio, run it with great dedication, aiming to establish circular farming practices in harmony with nature’s cycles. «They believe that having the EU organic certification is not enough», explains Valentina,
Erica and Fabio don’t just see themselves as farmers as they also have an educational role to play. Most people today have no idea of what fruit and vegetables grow in the different seasons of the year and ignore the fact that farming practices have a direct impact on the environment and on the quality of the food we eat.
This is why, alongside working their land, they also organise events: children are invited to the farm to pick strawberries and adults can pick what they wish to buy in a vegetable garden.
The group of students – formed Valentina, Klara, Yousef (Palestine), Ammar (Iraq) and Hannah (Nigeria) really enjoyed helping the young couple out and learning from them about sustainable farming practices. They were quite impressed by the way in which Erica and Fabio combine traditional knowledge they have received from their parents and grandparents with new perspectives and needs.
In times like these, marked by climate change and environmental crisis, places like the Zagara farm show which way to go in order to prevent further damage to the environment and develop more sustainable lifestyles, starting from the food we buy and the way we look at our planet. The students were happy to help out with some work on the farm before returning towards Duino, enriched by their contact with a place where people are really making a difference.
