There are some people who seem tailor-made for where they live. This is the feeling you get when you see Cecilia Carbone walking through the fields while he tells us about his work, the peasant.
But let’s take a step back, Cecilia is a 30 year old girl, born in Genoa and raised in Hong Kongstudied Economics and Finance in Milan and worked in London and New York; then during a trip to California she rediscovered contact with nature and her life took a completely different path which led her, five years ago to Serra Ferdinandeaa biodynamic farm in the area of Memphisin Sicily and for which he is now responsible. What he produces, how he grows and how he got here, he told us in this interview.
From Hong Kong to Sicily, from Finance to biodynamic agriculture. For some it might seem like giving up.
«After graduating from Bocconi, I went to work in London and then in NY, but at a certain point I resigned to take a trip to California and there I regained contact with nature».
Does this seem like the beginning of a life change?
«Yes, I decided to enroll at the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo which completely changed my horizons. I met Alessio Planeta who invited me to go to Sicily. It was 2018, I spent 3 days in the countryside and I understood that it was what I wanted to do, I moved and in the meantime I continued to study agriculture”.
He studied biodynamics and today applies it to the lands of Serra Ferdinandea. Why?
«We live in an era of exasperation with technology. But it is not in breaking with the past that a new construction is generated, rather it is in the meeting between old and new. Very advanced agriculture has overshadowed human attentions. Here we are not inventing anything, if anything we are updating the past.”
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Can you tell us what Serra Ferdinandea is?
«Serra Ferdinandea is an agricultural project born 5 years ago from the territory itself. We could have started a winery, but in agriculture it is the place that suggests what you can do and we had virgin land in our hands for 400 years. The conformation of this territory is anything but “simple”, but it has exceptional biodiversity.”
What do you grow in Serra Ferdinandea?
«We started from a great classic, namely subsistence. We grow a carbohydrate, the grain; a protein, which are chickpeas; and fruit, grapes to make wine and figs; and we also have bees that produce honey and fallow land to rest the land. The challenge is to scale it up to large numbers and elevate the concept of subsistence to that of regeneration.”
What do you mean by regeneration?
«It means respecting and improving the character of the territory».
How do you improve land?
«Our agriculture is organic, but in Sicily agriculture is almost guaranteed everywhere, so if you respect and are consistent, you have no difficulty in cultivating organically. Sicily always gives back.”
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Why is biodynamic agriculture targeted and belittled?
«Biodynamics teaches you to read the nature and value of empathy: by observing you have immediate feedback on what you are doing. But talking about biodynamics for some is like talking about an esoteric subject.”
How come?
«In 1924 Steiner theorized it, explaining the correlation between the movement of the planets and the ground. Since the nourishment of plants comes from the soil, the movement of the planets also influences the plants. Nothing strange, we all know magnetism and the sayings of our grandparents have an agricultural counterpart, only that they have never been verbalized correctly. The language of biodynamics is old, because it has never been updated. But the agricultural calendar, since the beginning of the world, follows the lunar one. Even in pruning.”
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Serra Ferdinandea was born from the will of two companies, one Sicilian and the other French. Can you tell us more?
«Although it is an independent company, with its own team, Serra Ferdinandea came to life thanks to two families: one Sicilian and one French, Planeta and Oddo, who wanted to bring together the two territories in this project. Serra is the Sicilian way of saying Sella, while Ferdinandea is a tribute to the submerged island 15 miles from the coast, in front of where we are.”
Bring together France and Sicily, why?
«Announced by several eruptive episodes and earthquakes, the Ferdinandea island emerged in July 1831 and was sighted almost simultaneously by the navies of France, England and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and was the subject of a dispute, but a few months after the island disappeared. The name therefore summarizes the physical characteristics of the place and the aspirations of this entrepreneurial challenge. Sicily and France have a centuries-old bond, even in viticulture, which the company wants to renew.”
After five years, what are the results?
«Serra Ferdinandea, in addition to being a place of production, is also a place of inspiration because we continue to study and do tests. The greatest result is seeing that on an economic level our system works.”
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Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
