At-trazione animale. Ritorno al futuro
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In the course of 2012, a group of people – livestock breeders, animal trainers, farmers, forest wardens, a saddler, a blacksmith, a farrier, a vet and some university agriculture students – gathered in Murazzano, in the province of Cuneo, to promote the use of animal traction. A lowcost solution effective especially in restricted mountain areas whose impact on the environment is reduced to a bare minimum. Living proof of how an agriculture more sustainable and in tune with nature really is feasible.
At the farms we visited on our journey, we witnessed practices that we thought had been buried in the memory of our grandparents: the heavy Italian draft horse is used to pull carts of hay all year round (without a drop of petrol), while donkeys are used to plow vine rows. On the basis of this experience, we don’t want to pass animal traction off as a panacea. What we can say is that, in view of the cost and depreciation of mechanization, in mountain or small-scale agriculture and for the recovery of fringe areas, in many cases this practice can offer jobs, generate a certain number of ancillary activities, and help create wealth.
In short, for an agriculture more sustainable and in tune with nature, animal traction is a return to the future.
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