Linda Montagna
Innovator
L´Eco della Terra
Italy
Cultural
Farming
Rural village
The innovation journey
Linda Montagna was born and raised in Switzerland, and she studied Sustainable Development in the Netherlands. However, she spent many summers of her life in Cilento, a rural area and national park, in Campania, the native region of her parents and grandparents.
In 2021, she decided to move to San Mango Cilento opening a small B&B while she was completing her MSc thesis on the ancient grains of Cilento and on the farmers who are still cultivating them.
Linda participated in the Empowering Women in Agrifood (EWA) programme – a training financed by the EU and the NGO EIT Food to support women in developing their project ideas. Simultaneously, she looked for abandoned plots of land in the area, which she could rent and started cleaning and using them for farming.
Now she has about 20 hectares where she started growing olive groves and a local variety of mountain bean, fagiolo a pisello, that was no longer being cultivated.
She also has a small herd of goats grazing in the fields, as well as chickens and geese. She learned how to produce a local traditional goat cheese, which she sells locally.
The innovation impact
Linda is restoring local lands that have been abandoned for many years. She is focused on environmental sustainability and revaluing local products and traditional agricultural practices. She has a clear vision of the farming model to be implemented: processing products, selling through short supply chains, and diversifying through tourist hospitality.
She is also one of the promoters of Circe, a local women’s collective (now a non-profit association) that fosters female resilience, awareness and empowerment. Moreover, she also challenges gender stereotypes about how women should dress and behave, for example, by spending the day on the farm, taking pruning classes, and walking alone in the mountains.