Think Like Pirates

Italian farmers bring agritourism know-how to Mississippi farmers seeking diversification

[Petal, Mississippi] In a relationship that became formalized in the Circo Massimo Farmers Market in Rome, the Italian farmers’ union Coldiretti agreed to join forces with the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives to undertake a shared learning process to identify promising practices that work on both sides of the Atlantic to stabilize family agriculture in an age when the next generation opt to leave the farm for urban opportunities. 

On March 18-19, members of Coldiretti’s agritourism arm, Terranostra (translated as “Our Land”), will descend upon the Indian Springs Farmers’ Association’s meeting center in Petal, MS, for a summit to glean which parts of the Italian strategy are applicable for black farmers whose stake in the marketplace has historically been undermined by illegal barriers erected by USDA, decades of “Jim Crow” policies, and the increasing dominance of private distribution channels that set prices and terms for trade. 

Coldiretti is Italy’s (and Europe’s) largest farmers’ union, with over 1.6 million members. A political and cultural force for civic support for Italian food and family agriculture, it was founded in 1944 as a coalition of small farmers who campaigned against fascism and large landholdings. After World War II, it played a critical role as one of the primary architects of post-war Italian democracy. As a result, it is no surprise that it finds common ground with one of the South’s most effective organizations to address black land loss. Founded during the Civil Rights era, it remains a genuine grassroots organization that shares Coldiretti’s commitment to democracy and access to resources for family agriculture. In 1995, the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives became the primary driver of new farmers markets in New Orleans – ones that led to the spread of direct marketing to Baton Rouge, LA; McComb and Ocean Springs, MS, and beyond. 

Past president of the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives and founding member of the Indian Springs Farmers’ Association in Petal, MS, Ben Burkett met Terranostra director general Carmelo Troccoli in Rome during the preparatory meetings for the United Nations Food Systems Summit in 2021. As Burkett describes, “We both recognized that we see the development of farmers markets and other direct marketing strategies as a means to restore dignity and control for family farms.” Together with New Orleans farmers market founder Richard McCarthy, the three began to hatch the idea of farmer-to-farmer exchanges that happen too rarely. 

Now President of the World Farmers Markets Coalition, McCarthy will bring to Petal, MS two Italian experts whose careers embody what the Italians refer to as “multifunctional agriculture” — an approach to agriculture that redefines it at the national political level as activity on the land that keeps families thriving, as opposed to the narrow American approach of activities solely related to production on the land. This expansive concept has enabled Coldiretti’s network of farmers markets, called Campagna Amica (translated as “friendship with the countryside”), to grow its network to 1,200 farmers markets across Italy. Pietro Hausmann, national farmer markets manager, will share how the farmers markets serve as a showcase for farmers to lure urban consumers to their farmstays, farm shops, and restaurants. One of these operators is a young farmer, Eleonora Masseretti, of Bergamo (in the Lombardy region of Italy). Like many of her peers, she left home for university, pledging never to return (only to do so years later with her husband and young child to take the family farm into new directions: vertical farming and agritourism). 

While these ideas have grown mature in Italy, thanks to the multifunctional agriculture investments and policies codified in the 2001 Modernization of Agriculture Law, this is not to suggest that agritourism is not alive and well in Mississippi. The two-day meeting will also provide ample opportunity for homegrown successful operations to present their models for operation, to inspire others, and to identify both barriers and opportunities for growth. Farmer Tracey Galloway’s farm in Ocean Springs, MS, utilizes his farm’s expertise in natural resource management to educate families who visit the farm to purchase and to learn. As is the case with other agritourism enterprises, the business model leverages knowledge and story to overcompensate for limited resources and land. 

The setting for the meetings at the Indian Springs Farmers’ Association’s community center itself is no stranger to agritourism. In 2022, rising star chef Serigne Mbaye of New Orleans’ Dakar Nola (but originally of Senegal) organized with fellow chefs a Freedom Feast at Indian Springs on Juneteenth (June 19) to prepare his fusion of African and New Orleans creole cuisine for the two busloads of eager eaters from New Orleans and the surrounding region. While Mississippi Association of Cooperatives Director Darnella Winston describes how “many of the farmers had their doubts that people wanted to visit the farms. They also expressed their doubts that they wanted visitors to roam around their farms; however, this single event demonstrated what is possible when urban and rural talents come together on the land.” 

The Summit will engage the nearby farmers who belong to the Indian Springs Farmers’ Association, members of the Southeastern African American Organics Network, who’ve just released a travel guide that features black farmers who are ready to invite consumers, and members of the Louisiana and Mississippi farmers market network from New Orleans and Baton rouge, members of the Mississippi Department of Agriculture, the World Farmers Markets Coalition, and the Summit’s sponsor, the WK Kellogg Foundation. 

For more information, contact Darnella Winston, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, dbw601@gmail.com ; and Richard McCarthy, World Farmers Markets Coalition, richard.mccarthy@worldfmc.org