Mountain farming: Silvia's story, a woman who believed in it and created a quality company.

With a degree in accounting, thirty-year-old Silvia Lupi was doomed to emigrate. Instead, in the mountains of Liguria, she raises prized calves and pigs, produces cured meats and organic grains. She has one hope: to see her friends return. A good gamble in a country where 70 percent of its territory is made up of hills and mountains.

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mountain farming

MOUNTAIN AGRICULTURE –

Agriculture is also growing in the mountains. For years, too many years, it was abandoned and forgotten, resulting in a huge waste of resources and opportunities. A story emblematic of this return to mountain agriculture is that of Silvia Lupi , a beautiful thirty-year-old who, in the Upper Trebbia Valley, in Fossoli di Corte Brugnatella (841 meters above sea level) in the Liguria region, decided to save her small family business . And even to relaunch it.

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MOUNTAIN AGRICULTURE –

Silvia, a graduate of Accounting, dreamed of opening a farm : too much money, too much bureaucracy, too many risks. She risked becoming an employee at some farm in the valley, or ending up like her two brothers and a good portion of her peers: an emigrant, looking for work. Instead, she rolled up her sleeves, understood the potential of that family business, and completely transformed it : no longer just milk for the cows, to be sold to dairies, but also top-quality meats and cured meats, with a small herd of veal and pigs. And also: high-end organic farming , with fields of cereals and wheat. Silvia's team is made up of her father and mother : a team that should be replicated in many other small businesses across the country. Mountain agriculture, in fact, is a great resource (but poorly and underutilized), considering that 41,6 percent of Italy's land is hilly and 35,2 percent mountainous . These two figures set European records. And so, reviving the mountain economy means nothing more than reviving a part of the country, namely places with strong identities, cultures, and histories. And who knows, perhaps Silvia will be able to realize another of her lifelong dreams: bringing her friends and brothers back to her homeland.

( Cover image source: Corriere della Sera/Tambresoni )

WHEN AGRICULTURE CHANGES YOUR LIFE:

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