Cilento Bio District

Italy

Ten years ago, the Italian Association for Organic Agriculture created the concept of “bio districts”, in which farmers, governments, and citizens across a geographic area work together to develop economic strategies around organic food production and agroecology. Cilento, the first of Italy’s bio districts, encompasses 37 municipalities with 400 organic farms which work together to enhance land access for young farmers, simplify organic certification, procure local food for nearby hospitals and schools, promote local agroecological farming traditions, and more. Most of the producers are small family farms that grow a diversity of traditional Mediterranean crops and heritage breeds, and 95% of the produce is sold locally. Learn more about Cilento and the bio districts model on their website (in Italian), in this briefing from the UN FAO, and this Medium article.