ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Campi Aperti’s practices and organisation, highlighting how the participatory processes within such an association are able to partially subvert and overcome some key notions of capitalist food markets dominated by large industrial food corporations. Food sovereignty is a concept developed by the international farming movement La Via Campesina, which has millions of members worldwide mostly coming from countries in the global South. The paradigm of food sovereignty underwent an evolution towards constitution, protection and diffusion of new spaces/systems of production, distribution and consumption of food generating virtuous food systems by the people for the people. The horizontal governance structure of Campi Aperti consists of a complex set of permanent working tables and of temporary affinity groups. The chapter deals with the basic nuts and bolts of Campi Aperti, a commons engaged in the production of a fundamental aspect of immediate reproduction – high-quality food – in a way that promotes trust, social justice and agro-ecology.
