Emo and Elsa Catena work 15 hours a day on their farm, but they fear that the rural Italian way of life that they love is dying. They suspect that they will be the last members of their family to farm.

“They do not farm because they have to; they do it because they truly love it. It is what brings them satisfaction in life,” said their daughter Daniela, 37.

The Catena farm has been in the family for over 100 years. “At one point in time, maintaining a farm was a group effort; everyone in the family was focused primarily on the farm duties,” Emo said.

That changed when Daniela and her brother, Alfio, 46, were children and began attending school. “To keep us from doing so [attending school] would be to deprive us of a normal life,” Daniela said.

Once the children were old enough to decide what they wanted to do with their future, both left the farm for jobs in Cagli. Emo and Elsa continued to run the farm on their own.

The Catenas’ day begins at 6 a.m. and stays busy until after 8 p.m. They start by feeding and herding the animals. Chickens, turkeys, hens, ducks, geese, rabbits, sheep, cows, bulls, and dogs must be attended to. They farm 200 acres of land, most of which is hay.

Until the late ’70s the family did not have tractors, and there is still a great deal of manual work. Aside from the daily upkeep of the land, the Catenas make fresh cheese and meats, and collect eggs to sell to numerous customers.

The cheese-making process alone takes hours a day. Elsa gathers the sheep, milks them, filters the milk, adds enzymes and then forms and filters the cheese to perfect it.

Farmers do not take time for the few hours of pausa that most Italians enjoy each afternoon. Rather, Elsa must concoct a special feed for the chickens and turkeys and walk out into the fields to sit with them and feed them. Likewise, Emo takes a pasta combination to feed the dogs: “Even the animals eat pasta in Italy.”

They said that teamwork is necessary on the farm. Elsa juggled raising children and strenuous farm work. She had to find time to feed the family and care for the children in the midst of all her other work.

“Emo and I are actually with each other very few times a day — when we go to sleep at night, and when we wake up in the morning.”

Daniela and Alfio often visit the farm and their parents. When they do, they help with the farm work, but they have chosen not to farm. The Catenas said that this is happening more and more often.

Both children work in farm-related jobs. Daniela works for Coopertiva Agricola which tries to prevent foreign corporations from taking over local farms by ensuring that local farmers are getting paid properly. Alfio repairs tractors and other farm equipment.

The Catenas said the local government has tried to help local farmers by subsidizing them. Even so, farming is declining.

“Few people are dedicated enough to want to farm anymore; it just seems that there is no way to solve this problem,” Elsa said. “We older people are going to die soon. When that happens, the farms will die also. The work is too hard, and no one wants to do it anymore.”