"It's not your muscle power that counts on the field"

The young producer Elena Cassisi from Sicily stands for a new generation of agriculture and radiates a lot of strength and determination in this male domain that simply impresses us. We are delighted to have this inspiring young woman join our network of Valdibella producers this year. This summer, Elena Cassisi visited us in person in Switzerland and told us about her work, her challenges and her role as a woman in agriculture.

"I feel complete in my work"

Elena Cassisi knew at a very young age which path she wanted to take: three years ago - Elena was only 23 years old at the time - she took over an abandoned farm in south-eastern Sicily with the help of her family and converted it to organic farming. Today, the 27-year-old Sicilian is happy about her decision to return to her native Sicily after a few years abroad. In Mazzarrone, in a hilly area in the province of Catania, she has now opened her farm "Amardìa". Their farm is not only a heavenly natural place, but also a daily learning field for a sustainable, new way of farming. Sometimes she feels alone and small on her 6 hectares of land, but at the same time Elena also sees every day how nature and its wonders work, from which she can only learn every day. "I feel complete when I do this job," says the young and unconventional woman in conversation with us in Zurich.

Elena's table grapes now grow on the 6 hectares of hilly land, surrounded by a centuries-old olive grove. The crop had been neglected for several years and Elena first had to take care of it again, cutting back shrubs and adding lots of compost to the soil. It was an exciting, not easy start in an environment of heavily industrialized agriculture with water shortages, extremely long periods of heat in summer and, as a result, many pests. Since then, Elena has been learning year after year and diversifying her cultivation - she recently planted peach and orange trees. She has already noticed an increase in biodiversity and an improvement in the soil structure.

As a woman in a male-dominated agricultural sector

Only a fraction of farms today are run by women. Elena quickly realized that the usual machines and tools were designed for men and are not very gender-friendly to operate. "But nature isn't about muscle power, it's about observation and understanding, and I'm very talented at that compared to my male colleagues. These qualities also enable me to keep up or even surpass them with my own insights and to change the fact that they have always been there or have always done things this way," Elena emphasizes confidently and confidently. At the same time, we quickly realize that the community and cooperation with the local people are central to Elena, regardless of whether they are men or women.

Using rosemary instead of poison against pests

Elena comes from a family of table grape producers and studied in Holland and England, where she deepened her studies in agricultural sociology and food anthropology. During her studies, she was already intensively involved with the world food system and alternative trade models and also attended courses on regenerative agriculture. As the daughter of a grape producer, Elena was already familiar with the problems associated with industrialized and conventional agriculture. It is therefore only logical that the young woman is a staunch advocate of organic farming, pursuing innovative cultivation methods and working the soil only minimally with machines. For example, she also plants rosemary between her vines and uses these measures to keep pests away from her grapes while promoting biodiversity.

Food without pesticides directly from the farm