Italy is rediscovering a sector that many believed had gone out of fashion for years: pastoralism. This is testified by a dossier drawn up by Coldiretti, according to which, after decades of decline, in 2016 the number of sheep returned to increase, reaching 7,2 million. In just five years the number has increased by about 200 heads.
"After having been forgotten for a long time, sheep are experiencing a great moment of recovery with a historic increase in flocks and the arrival of young shepherds, precisely because in Italy - underlines Coldiretti - a completely different path has been chosen with innovation respecting tradition".
What is responsible for this extraordinary recovery? The agriculture association itself explains it: "The revival was supported by the boom in demand abroad for cheeses up to the great innovation that revolutionized pastoralism with contributions ranging from cosmetics to fashion, from construction to schools, but also environmental maintenance, pet therapy up to new products, from sheep's milk ice cream to cholesterol-free pecorino”.
A trend which, in addition to rediscovering one of the key sectors of our local tradition, also has strong implications from an employment point of view, especially for young people, whose unemployment rate in March settled at 36,7%. According to the information contained in the dossier drawn up by Coldiretti, there are around 200 thousand young people who "have chosen to lead a flock in a life choice where the most worrying about the crisis at the moment are the delays and inefficiencies of the bureaucracy and the attacks by wild animals, from wild boars to wolves, which have multiplied in the countryside”.
Some of these kids have decided to follow the path of their parents, while others have decided to enter the sector “driven by the desire to find an alternative occupation in contact with nature. With the young shepherds - notes Coldiretti - the ancient breeds also return and there are 38 of them saved from extinction by Italian farmers on the basis of data from the Rural Development Plans of the past programming ".
