The Cooperative’s activities
A farm that grows and breeds a wide range of products using organic and biodynamic farming methods, which it sells directly from its mobile stores all over the city and in the province of Reggio Emilia as well as in most NaturaSi stores in Reggio Emilia and throughout the province.
A children’s farm that offers well-structured programs for elementary and junior high schools.
The origins of La Collina
In the late 1960s-early 1970s, after extensive voluntary work experience gained in grassroots communities in Latin America, Reggio Emilia and other cities, a group of young people from Reggio Emilia decided to create an extended family system led by Don Renzo Braglia.
Over the years, the family, originally made up of 12 people, grew to include nine children.
The group became a Cooperative in 1975 and set up an enterprise that could combine joint efforts and assist the socially disadvantaged.
Soon enough, after receiving many requests for hospitality and becoming aware of the rapidly evolving social context, the family decided to further develop the social project. As a result, the La Quercia cooperative was established in 1980, followed by the La Vigna cooperative in 1985.
The Cooperative’s goals
For many years, the members of the Cooperativa Agricola La Collina have been addressing the issue of Harmony and Peace:
Harmony and peace among the people who share this work experience and solidarity by placing great emphasis on the cooperative’s mutuality, which underlies the corporate choice made when the farm was established.
Harmony and peace with the land and its fruits, which has become part of the process that has led us to move away from conventional agriculture in order to embrace organic techniques, prompting us, more than 20 years ago, to adopt the anthroposophical approach of biodynamic agriculture. This approach not only eliminates chemicals from the land and from food, but also promotes harmony among living beings, which is inevitably reflected in the products that we all eat.
Harmony and peace with oneself for everyone, which we believe can be achieved by gratuitously putting some of our energy into making the world we live in a better place.
La Collina intends to offer food for thought and operational tools to experiment with and promote a solidarity-based, peaceful and environmentally friendly society.
Its aim is to organize and support activities that favor dialogue between different cultures, as a prerequisite for a new development model based on the dignity of every person and every culture, to promote and spread a culture of peace based on justice.
Its aim is to take care of anyone experiencing hardship, for various reasons, and anyone who finds it difficult to fit into society.
It aims to promote and develop an agricultural technique that respects the environment and the land, with the awareness that the “ecosystem” is a great living organism and that man is responsible for keeping it alive.
Social commitment: the vision
La Collina has always been known for offering products of the highest quality such as vegetables, fruit, grains and meat. These results stem from very specific organic and biodynamic farming choices, which are based on respecting the land and the rhythms of nature and enhancing natural resources.
However, this journey towards quality is characterized by another element: the effort to value people. La Collina is far from being a perfect organization, but it has always strived to focus on people, on the men and women who, over the years, have come into contact with the Cooperative in different capacities.
Therefore, the “trick”, if we may call it so, is to respect and value the land and people, which must go hand in hand. The products available on sale at La Collina tell the stories of men and women whose lives have become intertwined along a common path. A path that involves accepting the socially disadvantaged, without being judgmental, as well as men and women who have suffered in life and are seeking a chance: a chance to live and work, a chance to regain their dignity and achieve social redemption. This complex interweaving of relationships between men, women and Earth, which (re-)opens up possibilities of Life even where life was compromised, is the beating heart of La Collina and is the cornerstone of its social vision.
The commitment to enhancing, respecting and protecting our natural environment and its huge and rich biodiversity is at the heart of every action that takes place at La Collina. In fact, mankind can only progress by respecting Mother Earth and her natural rhythms.
La Collina Società Cooperativa Agricola
The Cooperative is governed and disciplined according to the principle of mutuality, without purposes of private speculation. Run as an association, its purpose is to obtain continuity of employment and the best possible economic, social and professional conditions for its members.
The Cooperative also aims to take care of anyone who is experiencing hardship, especially drug addicts who, for various reasons, find it difficult to fit into society, since it believes that through work – understood as a means of livelihood and development – and educational activities as a whole, marginalization in general can be overcome and, in particular, drug addiction.
The Cooperative aims to promote the development of an agricultural technique that respects the environment and the land, with the awareness that land, along with minerals, plants and animals, is a great living organism and that man is responsible for keeping it alive.
The Cooperative may also work with third parties and is affiliated with the Confederation of Italian Cooperatives.
In light of the mutual activities carried out by the Company, as defined in the previous article, and of the requirements and interests of the members as specified in detail below, the Cooperative has the following purposes:
- To manage agricultural land, whether acquired by lease, purchase, donation, loan, etc., by growing fruit, vegetables and plant nursery products, using cultivation
- techniques that increase the fertility and vitality of the soil through organic / biodynamic farming methods.
- To breed all types of animals, especially cattle and pigs.
- To market, also after processing and packaging, the products obtained from the above-mentioned crops and activities, including products supplied by other cooperatives or individual producers, through both wholesale and retail sales.
- The cooperative may carry out organized, non-profit activities to promote and disseminate organic/biodynamic agriculture and, in any case,
- environmentally sustainable agriculture by organizing training courses, internships in companies, visits and meetings in collaboration with public and private bodies.
- The cooperative may carry out, in an organized and non-profit making manner, any activity regarding education, moral, cultural, professional and material qualifications
- as well as the social inclusion of anyone who is in a state of need, with a special focus on drug addiction, by making the best possible use
- of the moral, physical or material resources of the members, recipients and collaborators who, for whatever reason, are admitted to participate in the company and/or its activities in various forms.
