Urban and rural symbiosis 01 "Milan metropolitan area 1ax 3 land, voluntarily designated as an agricultural park, residents farming livestock, enjoy pastoral life

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Farming in the fashion capital of an inch of land sounds like a pipe dream, but Andrea Falappi's dream has come true. His farm is less than four kilometers from the cathedral in central Milan and is a ten-minute walk to the subway station. In the 88-hectare field, cattle eat grass, and he grows rice, forage grass and cheese. Surrounded by poplar trees, storks, commonly known as giving away their children, are walking in the grass, the breeze is rustling, birds are chirping in the woods, and pastoral songs are sung in the hustle and bustle of the city.

With the spread of urbanization, the mayor once said: farmers should disappear in modern Milan.

This piece of farmland, which is close to the city center, is like tripling the size of the Daan Forest Park near the Taipei 101 Building for farming and raising cattle. Andre rode a little sheep motorcycle through the gate of the red tile wall and stopped in front of the 300-year-old farmhouse. 'The dream was a nightmare at first,'he said.

It was a time when money was flooded in Italy, where rapid industrialization emerged from the ruins of World War II and the economy boomed. As the economic locomotive of Italy, the money tide of Milan is like a golden sand shop, wave after wave of countrymen go to the city to look for gold, tall buildings in dry land occupy abandoned suburban villages, and cement, steel and asphalt devour one fertile land after another.

The north of the center of Milan is already full of high-rise buildings, builders are hunting land to the south, cheap agricultural land is the preferred target, some villages with only a few hundred people are pouring into tens of thousands of new residents, building houses, bridges, paving roads, and making great strides forward with modernization. The prosperous future promised by the builders, in Andre's eyes, was the end of the barren fields, where the farmers had no place to stand, and the fertile land reclaimed by their ancestors turned to dust. He recalled, "Peasants are almost extinct, and one mayor told me that farmers should disappear in modern Milan."

Andre's farm is close to the center of Milan (Photo / Zheng Jieyi). 61 villages and towns are connected to form the "Milan South Agricultural Park". Farming life preserves the town scenery.

Anarchic urbanization spreads like cancer cells, not only in the countryside, but also in cities that are almost breathless, air pollution and environmental degradation. Since the 1970s, environmental protection groups and hometown lovers have advocated leaving a ring park around the city center and letting the green space surround Milan.

Seeing that the northern suburbs were quickly conquered by builders, the southern towns of Milan's metropolis began to link up in the 1980s and successfully legislated in 1990. A piece of land covering 61 townships, covering an area of 46000 hectares, equivalent to the size of Taipei City, is designated as the "Milan South Agricultural Park". Agricultural park is not an agricultural park, which promotes agricultural development and restricts building development, but also maintains the model of symbiosis between urban and rural areas for thousands of years. On 37000 hectares of farmland, there are 900 households growing rice, corn and pasture, and 400 livestock farms raising cattle, pigs, horses or sheep. there are also existing town scenery, with churches and monasteries.

In the green part of the picture, the residents of Milan South Agricultural Park are on the same side with the farmers, defeating the Shaq builders.

Still, Andre's nightmare is not over. Salvatore Ligresti, a deep-pocketed builder, set his sights on Andre Farm in the "egg yolk zone" in 1982, bribing officials from the Metropolitan Development Bureau to buy part of the farm land, bypassing the ban. Andre, who rents the farm, is about to break his pastoral dream.

Andre, unwilling to give in, launched a struggle with the help of Milan's South Park Association. There were many ways to protest, including taking to the streets, holding flash mobs, going to court with builders and the government, and holding various celebrations and activities on the farm, bringing residents who realized the beauty of the countryside to the same front. Five thousand people signed it together to turn the 88 hectares of land around the farm into Parco del Ticinello Park.

"more fiercely, we also occupied parliament." Speaking of this scene, Andre could not hide his pride and raised his eyebrows, "because their discussion is endless, and they have no intention of passing a bill to turn the farm into an agricultural park to prohibit builders from building buildings."

The builder is not a fuel-saving lamp. Graysty would rather not charge the rent and ordered more than 20 peasant families to move out. "when the idle farmhouses are dilapidated, the countryside is dilapidated, someone comes to dump rubbish, and there is a law and order problem, the builders will have an excuse to reorganize this chaotic land." Renato, president of the association, explained, "at this point, he has all the more reason to change the farmland and build a lot of construction."

The police came to the farm many times to drive the farmers to move, but they were always driven away by the full crowd. The residents pull one by one, and the association is full of talents, including architects, geologists, teachers, writers, and priests. Everyone contributes their expertise to draw up blueprints and draft bills to turn the farm into a park. An old man recalled those days in a letter to the park. "We are United and clenched our teeth, not waiting for the top management, not relying on subsidies, not cutting the ribbon, and as a result, we are better off and happier."

After more than a decade of struggle in the grass-roots movement from the bottom up, Xiaomi defeated the shark, the builder Rigelisti went bankrupt, the property right was handed over to the municipal government and fulfilled the promise of an agricultural park. Andre's farm has become a bunker against urbanization, continue to have a pastoral dream, the surrounding neighbors also keep a green color.