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CHI SIAMO |
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I NOSTRI PRODOTTI |
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VIENI A TROVARCI |
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QUI MONTEBELLO |
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In conventional agriculture, plants are fed directly,
artificially and in an imbalanced manner with the aim of obtaining large
harvests. It is now possible to grow things without soil or sunlight: the
artifices of technology seem to be enough and genetic engineering helps in this
direction.
Organic farming, on the other hand, starts with the premises of a
quality product that is healthy for people and for the environment.
Instead of being an inert base to be exploited, soil is treated as a living
organism that needs to be respected. So there are three objectives:
safeguard the natural fertility of the soil, prevent forms of pollution and grow
highly nutritional produce.
The member farms of the Alce Nero Cooperative on
average produce cereals and forage and they also farm livestock; they alternate
cereals (durum wheat, ancient wheat, or barley) with forage legumes (alfalfa, field beans
or peas) or pulses (chick peas, beans, and lentils). This type of rotation allows both the
correct management of soil fertility and effectively combats weeds.
Organic
farming is not born from nothing. The following people were the first
defenders of the earth and pioneers of organic farming.
The first alarm was
sounded by Rachel Carson, who in her book “Silent Spring,” in 1962 wrote of the
serious dangers of wide-scale pesticide use, vehemently attacking both
scientists and the chemical lobbies. Already as far back as 1923, Rudolph
Steiner forecast the worrying problem of “mad cow disease”. He more or
less said the following: “if we feed herbivores with animal-based feeds, the
energy they usually use to transform vegetables into meat will in some way come
out in their brains, turning them mad”.
Even Konrad Lorenz, Nobel
prize-winner for medicine in 1973, in a couple of books denounced “ecological
ruin” caused by thoughtless use of chemicals and the superficiality of those
with economic and industrial power, who prostrate themselves completely before a
logic of “everything and now”.
In Italy, we can mention two eminent
scientists in the early 1970s: Professor Cesare Maltoni, for his laboratory
research into the causes and risks of air, water and food pollution, and Aldo
Sacchetti, author of a really interesting book, "L'uomo antibiologico" (the
Antibiological Man) published by Feltrinelli.
However, in this context, we
cannot forget the voice of Guido Ceronetti, who has been denouncing this
disaster for forty years: "Neither Fascists nor Communists in their wildest
dreams thought to standardise food consumption or to establish strict
regulations about their ingredients, manufacture and amounts to be produced, to
the extent that products have been completely altered. Things can only get
worse, and the European Union is turning out to be a powerful producer of the
worst. It is natural for Brussels and transgenic to go hand in hand: it is
the last stage, the final solution."
Sir Albert Howard might be considered
to be the pioneer of organic farming in Europe. In the 1920s he already
realised the dangers linked to heavy-duty use of chemical fertilisers and
pesticides in farming. Even Justus von Liebig, who inaugurated
industrialised farming in 1840, regretted this move towards the end of his life,
predicting the high risks.
Although living on a Japanese island, Masanobu
Fukuoka has also aroused a great deal of interest in Europe with his book "The
One-Straw Revolution". As well as opposing the use of synthetic chemicals,
he also opposed the use of mechanical interventions in farming, proposing sowing
in unploughed fields, simply covering seeds with chaff and straw.
Another
person spreading the idea of organic farming is Claude Aubert, who, in the
1970s, after publishing a highly successful book "L'agricolture biologique"
(Organic Farming) held numerous conferences, mainly in France but also in
Italy.
Naturally, in Italy we also owe a great deal to Ivo Totti, who
converted a large farm in Emilia, where he had worked for a long period as a
farming expert, to organic farming. At the end of the 1970s, then an old
man, Totti retired, dedicating himself totally to taking his knowledge and
experience to other new organic farms. His milk herd was bought by the
Alce Nero Cooperative, which was starting out in that very period and which,
thanks to this heritage, was able to learn and acquire firm points of reference.
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From the left
Gino Girolomoni/
Ploughing/
Threshing
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