On Tuesday, Sept. 24, a panel was held at the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce on “The Enhancement of Intangible Agribusiness Cultural Heritage. The GeCA project and PATs as an engine of development.”

BIA participated in the meeting, which was included in the framework of the G7 Agriculture and promoted by the National Council of Food Districts and the Central Institute for Intangible Heritage (ICPI).

The GeCA Project – Geoportal of Food Culture, is back in the spotlight as a virtuous model for researching, collecting and enhancing Italy’s agrifood heritage.

BIA developed and supported the project, conceived by ICPI: a collection platform that was born from the vision and desire to collect direct data of experiences and “know-how” of the territory, which constitute that segment of Italian Cultural Heritage so transversal that it allows to bring together in a single space of storytelling and discovery tales related to the agri-food sphere and everything that revolves around it: agricultural production, transformation of the territory, languages, colors and legends.

GeCA is an open and constantly evolving space: a platform through which hundreds of experiences, products, recipes and people tell their stories to the world, highlighting the traditions, stories and different cultures that populate the Italian peninsula.

Of equal importance are , typical products processed according to traditional recipes from local farms and crops. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (MASAF) recognizes more than 5,000 of them throughout Italy: the recognition is the first step institutions have taken to launch a campaign to protect and enhance these items.

Various interlocutors took turns on stage to narrate, discuss, and best address the complexity of the valorization of agri-food cultural heritage: Angelo Barone (President of the National Council of Food Districts), Leandro Ventura (Director of the Central Institute for Intangible Heritage), Serena Gagliardi (Vice-President of Slow Food Basilicata), Giovanni Venegoni (Managing Director of BIA) and Vincenzo Patierno (Researcher at “La Sapienza” University of Rome), coordinated by Teresa Del Giudice (Scientific Committee of the Center for the Study of Food Districts and Full Professor at Ferdinando II University of Naples).

In closing, the speech by Dario Caltabellotta (General Manager of the Department of Agriculture of the Region of Sicily).