Youth 4 Rural: A hope for work and health.

The Youth for Rural project aims to explicate the benefits of local farming by introducing and guiding young people to these valuable activities. The benefits are manifold, both socially and especially environmentally.

According to Olan McEvoy, search expert covering the European Union for society, economy, and politics, the "Youth unemployment rate in the EU 2023" would amount to about 13.8% in Europe, reaching its maximum expansion in Spain (27.9%), Greece (27.8%) and Italy (20.7%). Combating unemployment is a duty for states; indeed, both the Spanish and Italian constitutions provide for the right to work. The Spanish Constitution expressly mentions in Article 34 that "all Spaniards have the duty and the right to work," while the Italian Charter expresses itself in the following terms in Article 4 "the Republic recognizes the right of all citizens to work and promotes the conditions that make this right effective." In both cases, therefore, a duty is configured for the state, which has precisely the task of promoting work activity; one of the solutions could certainly be to encourage local cultivation, either by guaranteeing training courses for young aspiring farmers or by directly financing projects that deal with these issues. The increase in local production could therefore also have a significant economic impact, generating a sustainable economy, thus favouring small businesses in the area, which by saving on certain costs such as transportation and storage could significantly lower price levels. In this case, purchasing power would be greater, and inflation would come down, thus improving the quality of life for millions of people.

An additional advantage of 0-mile production is configured from the point of view of environmental impact. In 2022, a group of scholars from the University of Sydney conducted a study of 74 countries, titled "Global food-miles account for nearly 20 percent of total food-systems emissions," published by Nature Food and directed Mengyu Li of the School of Physics at the University of Sydney. The article explains that about 30% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the food system. The cost of transportation amounts to about 19% of the total weight of food pollution, thus contributing 6% of global emissions. Surprisingly, most of the transportation costs are attributed to the exchange of fruits and vegetables, as these require specific temperatures and special transport. Obviously, the solution is not to eat fewer fruits and vegetables, but to produce these products locally. In addition to transportation one must consider the environmental costs of preservation, according to Africa Renewal that is a United Nations digital magazine, about 36% of plastic is used in packing activities including of course conservation of food. By producing at km 0 the environmental costs of packaging would obviously be lower, and in addition water waste could be reduced.

It is also necessary to remember that for some countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, local food is part of the so-called intangible heritage, that is, the cultural wealth that is handed down from generation to generation, as is the case with the Mediterranean diet, so defending local production also means protecting culture and traditions!