Rural Food Futures: La Marsica Meets the Dingle Peninsula / Corca Dhuibhne

RURAL FOOD FUTURES

A new rural exchange connecting the Dingle Peninsula and La Marsica, Italy

DINGLE PENINSULA, CO. KERRY, IRELAND / LA MARSICA, L’AQUILA, ABRUZZO, ITALY — OCTOBER 2026

A new international rural exchange connecting two distinctive European rural territories will take its first steps during this year’s Dingle Food Festival.

From that initial idea, Ruralia Collective developed the project’s cultural concept, purpose and structure. The 2026 pilot has since been co-curated and facilitated together with Corca Dhuibhne Food Network / Bia Dingle and will take place during the Dingle Food Festival.

The project brings together the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry and the region of La Marsica in Abruzzo through food and agriculture, creating a framework for cultural, educational and economic exchange connecting farmers, producers, educators, researchers, artists and cultural practitioners, communities and institutions. At its heart is the exchange of knowledge, skills and living cultural heritage, bringing traditional and place-based knowledge into conversation with contemporary education, research and innovation.

The two territories may appear very different — one an Atlantic peninsula shaped by farming, fishing and the sea, where the Irish language, food, arts, hospitality and community remain closely connected to place; the other an Apennine territory centred around the highly productive Fucino Plain, known as the “Garden of Italy,” with its own deep agricultural traditions, food culture and living heritage.

Yet they have much in common: a deep agro-pastoral heritage, strong relationships between food, landscape, identity and community, and long histories of people travelling through their territories, carrying knowledge, skills, food, stories and culture. Today, both face many of the same questions about how to retain knowledge and practical skills, strengthen local food systems, support viable rural livelihoods, keep people on the land and give the next generation a viable future.

“Rural Food Futures began with a simple question: what might happen if two rural territories began learning from one another?” says Jessica McCannon Micheli, founder of Ruralia and creator and curator of Rural Food Futures.

“Food and agriculture give us an extraordinary place to start because they connect knowledge, culture, landscape, memory and community. This is about carrying forward what is valuable in our rural heritage, bringing it into conversation with new ideas and innovation, and creating relationships that can help build stronger rural communities and more resilient food systems. When we come to the table across borders from our unique territories to exchange knowledge and share the living culture that grows from our relationship with land and place, we also come to a deeper understanding of our common humanity. Rural Food Futures is building a framework for these kinds of exchanges, one that rises to the urgent call of these times.”

The idea for the exchange emerged in late 2023 after McCannon Micheli attended the launch of MarsicaLand, La Marsica’s region-wide agri-food festival. MarsicaLand brings agricultural production into conversation with culture, memory, research and community, using food and the land to strengthen territorial identity while looking towards the future.

As the idea developed, Professor Ernesto Di Renzo, anthropologist at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and Scientific Director of MarsicaLand, proposed exploring the possibility of a future territorial twinning between La Marsica and the Dingle Peninsula, giving the exchange a longer-term horizon.

THE DINGLE PILOT

The first pilot will bring a delegation from La Marsica to the Dingle Peninsula during the Dingle Food Festival, 2–4 October 2026, creating opportunities to exchange food, agricultural knowledge, practical skills and culture.

Education will be central to the pilot. Teachers and students from Avezzano’s Istituto Agrario Arrigo Serpieri, an upper-secondary technical and vocational agricultural school combining classroom learning with practical agricultural training, will take part.

The school is responsible for the management of the Decumano Maximo d’Abruzzo — Abruzzo’s first and only recognised biodistrict and the only biodistrict in Italy promoted by a school — an innovative model connecting agricultural education directly with producers, sustainable farming and the wider rural community.

On Saturday 3 October at 11:00am, Backyard at Blas will host “Learning by Doing: How Do We Teach the Next Generation of Food Makers?” The conversation will bring together representatives from Ireland and Italy to explore how practical food and agricultural skills are learned, shared and passed between generations, and the role education can play in carrying knowledge forward.

The visiting delegation will also meet people and organisations shaping the Dingle Peninsula’s food and rural culture, while a dedicated Taste La Marsica presence at the Bia Dingle Marketplace will give festival visitors an opportunity to discover the food and agricultural culture of La Marsica and a selection of artisan food products produced by Serpieri students.

Professor Di Renzo will also participate in institutional meetings in County Kerry as a delegate of AICCRE Abruzzo, supporting the wider development of relationships and cooperation between the two territories.

FROM EXCHANGE TO RELATIONSHIP

According to Trevis Gleason, Cathaoirleach of Corca Dhuibhne Food Network / Bia Dingle:

“The important work of our Network, while different in many ways, mirrors many of the aspirations of our new friends in La Marsica. This first exchange is the welcomed beginning of what we hope to be a reciprocal understanding and use of hard-earned best practices by both areas. We welcome the Italian delegation and look forward to their participation in this year’s Dingle Food Festival, Backyard at Blas, and exploring our beautiful peninsula together.”

The 2026 pilot is deliberately a beginning. The longer-term vision is to bring an Irish delegation to MarsicaLand in 2027 and continue developing reciprocal cultural, educational and economic exchange between the Dingle Peninsula and La Marsica — connecting people, producers, territories, skills, knowledge and markets while paving a path towards the twinning of the two territories.

The first step is simpler: bringing two rural territories to the same table, allowing them to encounter one another through landscape, food, people and knowledge — and discovering what they might build together.