Bortolas from Belluno, female manager of the national Coldiretti

“Agriculture is not the past, but the future of Italy thanks to the great opportunities offered by the solidarity economy, the agritourism, the short supply chain”, says the mountain horticultural biologist

BELLUNO. A biologist from Belluno who preferred the fields to the laboratory is now at the helm of all the Coldiretti entrepreneurs. Chiara Bortolas, 42, a mountain horticulturist, is the new national manager of Donne Impresa: an army of 207,000 farms owned by women in Italy. After 70 years from the foundation of the Women’s Movement by the thirty Emma Black, the reins of Italian farmers are in the hands of a company owner who has chosen the mountains as an entrepreneurial challenge. Chiara Bortolas after graduation and a period as a researcher at the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of the Venezie opted for the vegetable greenhouses that she sells directly in the company shop and in the Campagna Amica markets.

Chiara Bortolas, former regional president, with 50% of the representation of pink agricultural enterprises registered in the chamber register (14,815 female-owned companies) arrives in the capital with a wealth of projects now consolidated in the area. The activity of the Venetian farmers was characterized by the objectives achieved. With the tradition of ancient crafts, sericulture and pastoralism were recovered until the relaunch of fishing with a school that qualifies young fishermen. Initiatives that are also experiences of political and trade union dialogue for the conquest of regulations and awards for the social redemption of the agricultural female sector.

The flagship of Donne Impresa’s activities is the Campaign Amica education project aimed at the new generations, which involves thousands of students from all schools from North to South with theoretical and practical lessons inside and outside the classrooms. A thousand and more school gardens are now cultivated by children – explains Chiara Bortolas – with the same hands that typed on smartphones for a year in the outdoor recreation courtyards, seeds were planted to have vegetables and flowers. Farmers have become “teachers” alongside teachers and parents with mutual exchanges of knowledge full of humanity “. “We work for peace, we cultivate love – said Chiara Bortolas, dedicating a thought to the Ukrainian community, among other things the most present in Italy and whose female weight is significant and represents 78%. Humanitarian reasons and requests for political asylum drive the entry into our country. This detail pushes us to pay even more attention to these people who are now sisters, friends, parental assistants, in short, real resources for the community. Not only home helpers or carers, in 2020, thanks to the restrictions linked to the health emergency and the collapse in demand in many service sectors, there was a temporary increase in hiring also in agriculture. The educational farms are ready to welcome children, families and the countryside is the best space to find psycho-physical refreshment “. In their entrepreneurial action – explains Coldiretti – the Italian farmers have shown a great ability to combine the challenge with the market and respect for the environment, the protection of quality of life, attention to social issues, in contact with nature together with enhancement of typical local products and biodiversity becoming protagonists of the many expressions of multifunctionality. A trend also favored by the entry of new entrepreneurs who have followed training courses in other sectors.

“Agriculture is not the past, but the future of Italy – underlines Bortolas – thanks to the great opportunities offered by the solidarity economy, by the agritourism, by the short supply chain. Being able to combine productive activity, personal services, entrepreneurial vision, associative life, private reasons and the common good is a strong point. Our contribution of participation in the major Coldiretti projects is continuous and active. Starting with those who for the first time see the agricultural world and the Italian agri-food industry of excellence together to defend the entire national agri-food chain. The aim is to support and enhance Made in Italy from the field to the table, with supply chains that express the common values ​​of territorial and national identity, transparency and sustainability, in a logic of conscious consumption. This is a program – Chiara Bortolas concludes – that is consistent with the style with which women guide their businesses in line with modernity and the needs of consumers ”.