A young farmer thought that land in Rome was too expensive. Yet in Lazio there are tens of thousands of hectares of public land, partly or entirely abandoned. Out of this paradox, and starting with the Roman Coordination for Access to Land, Co.r.ag.gio – the Roman Youth Agriculture Co-operative – was founded in 2011.
In 2015, following a sit-in and a petition with over ten thousand signatures, the cooperative secured a thirty-year lease on the twenty-two hectares of Borghetto San Carlo, in Veio Park. Today, the fields – which have been farmed organically from the very beginning – are home to over 50 heirloom varieties of rare fruit and cereals, cultivated in collaboration with universities; this work led to the cooperative being awarded The Good Farmer Award in 2025.
There is a museum of rural life, two restored farmhouses, free workshops for aspiring farmers and an ecology workshop for children. For its members, farming is a form of activism: transforming a part of the city and seeing the results. As such, the cooperative plays an active role in Rome’s Food Council, the forum where institutions, experts and practitioners shape the city’s food policy. Co.r.ag.gio is now part of the #GreenHeroes: because public land, when cultivated together, once again belongs to everyone.
In the Friday edition of 13 November 2026