Saturday July 5 was the International Day of Cooperatives.
Cooperatives play a key role in family and small-scale farming and
contribute to food security and the eradication of hunger.
As the International Co-operative Alliance
(ICA) underlines, family-based agriculture, especially small-holder
operations, can realize their potential by building cooperatives which
allow them to have better access to markets and financing, better
bargaining power, improve efficiency and innovate. Also, cooperative
enterprises are adequate platforms for family farmers to develop social
infrastructures based on ethical principles such as democracy, gender
equality, concern for the community and the environment, among others.
For Radoslava, known to everyone as Rady, "cooperatives are like
families, everybody helps out to get the job done". Rady adds that Bio e
Mare works as a team with local fishers and also collaborates with two
local cooperatives, the Scirocco and the Maestrale, "like two families
that help one another".
She points out that one of the fishermen,
Giuseppe Maffei, known as Beppe, who also helps out with the deliveries
alongside his son, accompanied her to FAO for the Family Farming Expo,
highlighting the close collaboration between the fishers and the
cooperative.
Bio e Mare is composed of women between the ages of 21 and 50 who
come from Italy, Brazil, Colombia, Bulgaria and Poland. As Rady points
out, the international element enriches the cooperative, "it unites us
instead of separating us, each woman brings something different to the
table, a new recipe or idea.
"For example, Bulgaria is famous for sweet
and sour dishes, something which is not particularly known here in
Italy", she adds.
Reinventing tradition is central to this innovative
cooperative.
Bio e Mare was founded in 2011 in Marina di Carrara (Tuscany); it was
the first women's fisheries cooperative in Italy and has gone from
strength to strength since its establishment. It is the only cooperative
in Europe that salvages unsold fish directly from fishers, by
processing it into creams, sauces, pickled fish and much more. Any
additional ingredients are certified organic ensuring high quality and,
above all, healthy products.
Read more HERE.
The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd.
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