ROME - Bunches of grapes ripened in the sea to speed up the fermentation process and avoid the use of sulphites. Clothes that last a lifetime thanks to ancient processing of linen and hemp. And then the first anti-cellulite cream based on copper Montoro onions with a sweet and fragrant aroma. These are just some of the innovations born from the ingenuity of young Italian finalists at Coldiretti's Green 2020 Oscar and chosen after a long territorial selection among thousands of entrepreneurs. Flavia, Giulia, Francesca, Massimiliano, Gianluca and many others, the real Italian protagonists of the Green Deal.
There are many winning stories, such as the Lucanian breeder Giovanni who invented the hi-tech collar for his podolic cows, which can graze freely because their position is controlled in real time. Or even Massimiliano who transformed his Umbrian company in the ancient west where bisons are bred, precious animals for skins, wool and their delicious meats. In Abruzzo there is Gianluca who produces and sells natural accessories for men / women in the center of Aquila, coloring them with saffron. And if in Lombardy Leonardo created 'Arlecchino', the first donkey milk cheese, in Calabria Pietro experimented with the first anti-wolf collar which, with an ultrasound processor, removes them from the flock.
Then there is Paola who began to produce the first spreadable oil from Xylella resistant varieties, an absolute primacy in the world of food. Among the proposals there are those with a social background, such as Luca who cultivates land confiscated from the mafia to convert it into an oasis of peace, but also Sara in Lazio where disability and fragility become potential through assisted therapy with animals.
Young people in the camps + 12%, but bureaucracy extinguishes dreams of 1 out of 2
In Italy there is an historic return to the land with over 56 thousand young people at the helm of agricultural businesses, a record at Community level with an increase of 12% in the last five years. Too bad that the bureaucracy extinguishes the dream of one in two young people. This is what emerges from the analyzes of Coldiretti presented on the occasion of the delivery of the Oscar Green, the innovation prize for young companies that create development and work.
In Italy there are over 548 thousand companies run by under 35s in all production sectors, from trade to manufacturing, from clothing to services, with the agricultural sector boasting more than 10% of young people who do business and create jobs. So much enthusiasm too often annihilated by bureaucracy, as Coldiretti points out, on the basis of the use of community resources of the Rural Development Plans (RDP) 2014-2020. 55% of young people, among the almost 39 thousand who have applied for agricultural settlement, have had their projects rejected because of planning errors by regional administrations.
This, with a very differentiated regional trend, where we go from Lombardy where only 13% of applications were rejected, to Basilicata with 78%. The result, Coldiretti calculates, is the loss of a potential half a billion a year of added value that young businesses could have developed.
Green change for 1 in 3 young people, from km0 food to car sharing
For more than one in three young Italians (38%), the environment is the main emergency immediately after work, so much so that it has changed the various behaviors: they begin to buy used clothes or accessories, they use car sharing for short trips, they share workspaces with other people or the car for long journeys. This is what emerges from the first Coldiretti-Ixe survey on 'The green turn of the new generations'.
Among the new habits, Coldiretti reports, in the first place there is the choice to eat zero km food indicated by 77% of the under 30, they follow the walk instead of by car or motorbike (64%), the renunciation of the use of air conditioners (56%), purchases of organic food products (56%), up to avoiding holidays involving air travel (33%). It is no coincidence that environmental issues are often or even very often at the center of conversations for 64% of young people under 25, against an overall average of 48%.
"This new green focus - underlines the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini - represents an important basis for transforming the Italian and European economy". And it is thanks to the young people, recalls the leader of the young people of Coldiretti, Veronica Barbati, "that Italy has conquered a leading role in the Green Deal, with agriculture boasting 299 Dop / Igp / Stg specialties recognized at Community level and 415 Doc / Docg wines, leadership in the organic sector with 72 thousand organic operators, 40 thousand farms engaged in protecting seeds or plants at risk of extinction ".