AGRICULTURE & JOBS: DOMENICO DI MASI’S OPINION. THE LATEST COLDIRETTI AND SWG STUDY REVEALS 85% OF ITALIAN PARENTS ADVISE SONS AND DAUGHTERS TO GET A JOB IN AGRICULTURE, BUT ITALY’S FUTURE CANNOT BE SAVED IN THE FIELDS

Agriculture and wine & food are the only two sectors that have weathered the economic storm and succeeded in growing, especially in jobs and yield. Even though agro-food takes 15% of the Italian PIL, restarting the economy from this primary sector, is not, probably, the best of ideas. One of the highest experts in the world on work and its dynamics, Domenico De Masi, told Winenews his “cutting” opinion regarding the latest survey conducted by The Italian Association of Farmers, Coldiretti and the Italian market research company, SWG, which revealed 85% of Italian parents advise their kids to get a job in agriculture:
“Let’s start with one fact: right now the number of people employed in agriculture in Italy is only 4% of the total work force. This percentage,” he explained to Winenews, “is tiny, as even if we double it, it is still very distant from the more strategic sectors, like tourism, which represents 16% of the Italian work force”.

These figures, however, do not undermine the importance of the sector, which has more space for those who want to work in agriculture. But, it is important to remember that “it is less stable than one might think, as it depends on unpredictable events, like the weather. For the last two centuries, uncertainty in the sector has made entire generations leave the fields, so when we talk about recovering traditions and capacities, as Carlo Petrini says, I agree, but it is not a good idea to bet on agriculture as an economic strategy and Italy is really not suitable, due to its many difficult landscapes”.
Is this harsh criticism pointed to those who, like the agricultural associations, say agriculture is suitable for young people? No, it is just a return to reality, and the difficulty “of a job that requires many skills, substantial investments and that has to deal with an increase in productivity more and more linked to mechanization”. Coldiretti instead, recalls how its confidence in this sector is based on numbers: companies led by young people, according to the association “recorded a sales level 79% above the average and 55% more people employed”.

At Coldiretti’s assembly of young entrepreneurs, there were more than 1.000 young people representing agricultural enterprises in Central Italy. And, according to the numbers from the Italian statistics company Istat, there are 117.000 under-40s who work in more than 450.000 companies in the seven regions and one third (33%) are business owners. In Emilia Romagna there are 17.901 young people under-40 employed and 31% own their own businesses. The results of the research, says the Codiretti Young Entrepreneurs national delegate, Vittorio Sangiorgio, "are a great challenge considering we are now in 2013: it would have been an obvious result if we had been in the post-war period when it was normal that a child worked in the fields.

Instead, "to see in 2013, where society is totally projected on the Web, a parent advise their child to invest in agriculture or enter into the agriculture work force reveals two things: first, that food is the only way, the only road for the future that, in this moment, Italy can build on; and the second is the food industry is the only industry and data confirms it, that is creating jobs and confidence”. On the other hand, Sangiorgio points out, "food is 15% of the GDP of this country: if we link it to tourism, culture and the environment in a modern key, we can offer our children the Italy from which today, young people often flee”.