Starting today, the FoodSystem 5.0 Summer School will bring 20 researchers from around the world to Cilento until June 21, with the educational and operational goal of combining applied research, agroecological tradition, and digital innovation.
The Core of the Summer School: Community Olive Farming
At the heart of the “FoodSystem 5.0” Summer School, a key stop in the “Il Borgo dei Mulini” project, promoted by the Municipality of Sessa Cilento and the Ministry of Culture, and led scientifically by Rural Hack, is community olive farming. This is not merely seen as an agricultural technique, but as a territorial and cultural practice capable of generating shared value, resilience, and care for common goods. The school takes place not in an abstract classroom, but in the vibrant landscape of the Cilento National Park, among centuries-old olive groves, dry stone walls, terracing, and millennial practices of collective soil and water management.
The Key Question: Integrating Tradition and Innovation
The entire experience will revolve around one key question: how can we make technologies that are deeply different from each other work together coherently and effectively to support regenerative agriculture, capable of healing territories, enriching soils, enhancing landscapes, and generating shared value?
Experimentation and Technology in the Summer School
During the school, participants will be invited to experiment with the integration of ancient technologies, such as dry stone walls, and IoT sensors for environmental monitoring. They will analyze state-of-the-art oil mills capable of optimizing the organoleptic properties of oil and photometric technology analyzers for measuring polyphenols, indicators of nutraceutical and environmental quality. The use of distributed technologies like blockchain will be evaluated to build trust and certify not only the quality of the final product but also the impacts on soil, human health, and the ecosystem.
An Immersive, Action-Oriented Educational Approach: Learning by Producing
The Summer School stands out for its immersive and action-oriented educational approach: learning by producing. It is not simply a learning path but a collective experience aimed at producing tangible solutions, prototypes, and replicable models that make a new form of cooperative olive farming visible and actionable.
Integration of Tradition and Innovation: A Shared Vision
The school’s title itself outlines a clear direction: not a confrontation between tradition and innovation, but their radical integration. “Ancient technologies” (such as dry stone walls, inscribed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage) are not relics to be preserved, but vital tools for sustainable land management. Likewise, blockchain and IoT sensors are not just high-tech gadgets but tools to restore transparency, traceability, and trust to local production processes, certifying not only the quality of the finished product (EVO oil) but also the entire ecological, social, and cultural cycle that makes it possible: soil health, polyphenol content, cultivation techniques, landscape impact, and cooperative governance.
SRD04 Call for Projects and the Recovery of Rural Heritage
During the Summer School, on the morning of Saturday, June 21, a meeting will be held at the headquarters of the Nuovo Cilento Cooperative in San Mauro Cilento to promote the new SRD04 – Action 1 call, published by the Campania Region under the 2023–2027 Rural Development Plan. The call allocates 15 million euros for the recovery of dry stone walls, terracing, and traditional hydraulic-agricultural systems, essential for protecting rural landscapes and the agroecological resilience of territories.
Project Stakeholders and Expert Involvement
The meeting will feature the participation of Nicola Caputo, Regional Minister of Agriculture, along with key local figures such as Antonello Di Gregorio, president of the Coop Nuovo Cilento, Giuseppe Cilento, founder of the cooperative, and Alex Giordano, university professor and scientific director of Rural Hack. The event will be enriched by the presence and testimony of some dry stone walling artisans, guardians of an ancient but still essential knowledge.
The Borgo dei Mulini: A Cultural and Social Regeneration Project
The FoodSystem 5.0 Summer School is part of a cycle of 4 seasonal schools on FoodSystem 5.0, which is part of the cultural and social regeneration project Il Borgo dei Mulini, promoted by the Municipality of Sessa Cilento, located in the Cilento National Park, Vallo di Diano, and Alburni, and funded by the Ministry of Culture under the PNRR – Intervention 2.1 “Attractiveness of Historic Villages”. The initiative involves several public and private actors and aims to transform the area into a civic participation laboratory and an incubator for business development in cultural, tourism, environmental, and agro-food sectors.
Project Goals: Combating Depopulation and Enhancing Local Resources
The project aims to combat depopulation and enhance local resources through the redevelopment of historical and naturalistic assets such as the Valle dei Mulini and Palazzo Coppola, strengthening cultural and tourism infrastructures, and creating new hubs for social innovation, including a rural hub for social and digital innovation run by Rural Hack through the organization of 4 schools that follow the seasons on FoodSystem 5.0 topics. The ultimate goal is to make Sessa Cilento a model village that blends tradition and innovation for sustainable economic and social development, closely connected with other municipalities and virtuous realities in the broad territory of the Cilento National Park, Vallo di Diano, and Alburni.