Italian agriculture in the shade of a pandemic. New and old dilemmas

The pandemic emergency highlighted the strategic value of the Italian agriculture, but at the same time it revealed its vulnerability. Reduction of farmland and number of farms, increasing foreign food dependence, land concentration and land grabbing, abandonment of internal areas, land market rigidity, unsustainability of agro-industrial practices are some of the main challenges that the agriculture will have to face in the next years. The paper addresses these critical issues, with the aim of describing and interpreting the main barriers that hinder an ecological transition and the implementation of “a sustainable food chain that works for consumers, producers, climate and the environment”. The issue of how, in the current scenario, the large financial resources, expected for the recovery can be an opportunity towards the organization of a diversified food system is also investigated.