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After Wheat: Revitalizing Sicilian Agriculture through Heritage Tourism
Author(s) -
Samuels Joshua
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
culture, agriculture, food and environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 2153-9561
pISSN - 2153-9553
DOI - 10.1111/cuag.12097
Subject(s) - sicilian , agriculture , tourism , battle , agency (philosophy) , politics , political science , production (economics) , appeal , cultural heritage , economy , order (exchange) , geography , business , agricultural economics , economics , archaeology , sociology , social science , law , finance , philosophy , linguistics , macroeconomics
Sicily was once the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, but by the 20th century Sicilian wheat production had declined dramatically due to deforestation and changing economic, political, and climactic conditions. Alternatives to wheat production are now being actively promoted in order to revitalize Sicily's rural economy. These include the Via dei Borghi , an ambitious project proposed by Sicily's Agency for Agricultural Development ( ESA ) to promote “slow tourism” through the island's interior using the appeal of traditional agricultural heritage. The borghi at the heart of the project are rural centers associated with the Fascist “Battle for Wheat” that were designed to hobble the traditional agricultural systems that ESA is valorizing. The result is an ironic but creative requalification of the borghi that incentivizes farmers to focus on diverse and unique local products, providing one answer to the question of what to produce after wheat.