WWOOF Italy: Agritourism

4 May 2011

My fifth and final WWOOF farm! I have arrived to Finocchio Verde, a farm, agritourism in Murazzano, Italy, in the beautiful Piemonte. “Piemonte” is so called because it literally sits at the “foot of the mountains,” or the Alps. That said, it has been so overcast that I have not yet seen the glorious mountains that are supposedly surrounding us!

This is what an agritourism should be. The family consists of Isa and Mario, sixty or so sheep, forty or so goats, one horse, six or so cats (including a black one named Obama and his sister named Hillary), and six or so dogs. Then there are the WWOOFers...somewhere around seven of us, currently. There are three permanent WWOOFers (not including the three year old horror who is the child of one of them) and four short term ones currently.

Then the agritourism itself only has four beds. Four. They are available when Mario and Isa feel like having guests…and not when they do not. The agritourism also has a restaurant, where guests eat along with the family and the WWOOFers, all at the same big table. This also is open when Mario and Isa feel like hosting…and not when they do not.

Agritourism was created as a government supported concept to help farmers who may otherwise have to leave the land to find a way to support themselves. Often, you see agritourisms with something like fourteen beds (the only excuse, according to Mario, is that they must become consumed with the idea of making money). In those cases, though, either the agriculture becomes secondary, or they must hire outside help for the agritourism, OR they must hire outside help from a farmer to take over the farm responsibilities. These results of farms turned agritourism annul the agritourism's original goal, to make the farm more financially sustainable as it is. At my first agritourism in Gubbio, for example, the farm was completely secondary and completely taken care of by hired outside help, completely in contrast with agritourism's original goal.

For Isa and Mario, it is serving its exact purpose of making their farm more financially sustainable, but it is not being exploited beyond that. They are able to sell their products to their customer, but selling prepared salad in a meal that costs fifteen Euros a person is economically much better than selling it at a commodity price or not selling it directly through a market. Also, it gives them the opportunity to gain customers who will come back and continue to purchase their cheese and meat, their main products, in the future. The agritourism has not been so overwhelming that it has forced them to hire more help or give up parts of their farm work, such as the bees or the garden, but it has helped them make ends meet.