La quadratura del cerchio

The Mani e Terra cooperative was born after the SOS Rosarno campaign, which in turn arose from the sadly famous Rosarno Revolt of January 2010, when three days of collective madness showed the entire world what lies behind an orange that arrives on our tables every day: in the vast majority of cases, agricultural work, almost always performed by immigrant workers, is characterized by the ferocious exploitation of man by man, to the point that the violation of workers’ and small producers’ rights becomes a structural element of any agricultural supply chain. Inhabitants of Rosarno who, until that moment, had carried out solidarity, observatory, legal support and defense of African workers’ rights, gave life to the SOS Rosarno campaign.

Today, the Mani e Terra cooperative, made up of worker members of Italian and African origin, manages the entire “SOS Rosarno” Campaign and operates exclusively in a context of solidarity economy – critical consumption and is aimed exclusively at solidarity purchasing groups (G.A.S.), fair trade shops, popular and social outlets. The cooperative is inspired by 3 principles: Defense of nature and the environment, through organic and/or agro-ecological cultivation methods; Respect for the dignity and rights of all the actors involved, from the workers who are hired with a regular contract and paid according to the law, to the producers who receive a fair price for their products and, finally, to the consumers who have the possibility of accessing clear, transparent prices; mutualism and solidarity, through projects and practices of social inclusion that involve other associations present in the area such as, for example, Mediterranean Hope, a project on migration by the Federation of Italian Evangelical Churches (FCEI).