Riomaggiore 2027: Activating Local Food Systems from the Intelligence of Place

There is something that lives in the land of Liguria that cannot be reduced to tourism, nor to cuisine, nor even to the aesthetic beauty that so many travel to witness, because beneath Riomaggiore there is a much older intelligence, one shaped by the pre-Roman peoples who lived in deep relationship with steep terraces, salt air, wild herbs, and the constant negotiation between sea and stone, and it is this intelligence that we are coming to listen to, to learn from, and to activate once again.

In this 2027 Riomaggiore course on activating local food systems, I am not teaching a model that can be copied and pasted across contexts, but rather opening a living inquiry into how place itself becomes the teacher, how culture, ecology, and food are inseparable, and how we as practitioners, policy makers, and community builders can begin to design from within that relationship rather than imposing upon it.

The ancient Ligurian peoples understood something that modern systems have forgotten, which is that food is not a supply chain but a living expression of land, labour, ritual, and belonging, and when we begin to restore food systems we are not simply addressing production or distribution, we are participating in the regeneration of civic life itself.

From terraced landscapes to coastal ecologies, from small-scale growers to local governance, this course is a space for those who feel called to work at the intersection of food, place, and systems change, and who are ready to move beyond theory into grounded, design-led practice that can be carried back into their own regions with clarity and integrity.

If you are ready to engage deeply with place-based action, to think with the land rather than about it, and to become part of a wider movement of food communities as civic infrastructure, then I invite you to join us in Riomaggiore in 2027.

Enrolment details are in the link below, and I encourage you to step in early as this is an intentionally small and focused cohort designed for meaningful collaboration and long-term impact.

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