Three centuries of the land
When people talk about Radice Fossati, they are talking about three hundred years of farming in the heart of Lomellina, a land of rice in western Lombardy. Nicola is the representative of the current generation in charge and feels all the responsibility.
"The role of agriculture," says Nicola, "is first and foremost to take care of the land. We farmers have taken on this burden because we are the only ones who really know it. We have made it fruitful, we have always lived with it in such a symbiotic way that we are its most loving guardians. This means constantly rethinking the idea of agriculture. It is unthinkable nowadays to consider a linear production model-commonly adopted-where energy is used to produce something that partly goes to waste. Instead, the circular economy, which my family has been involved in since time immemorial, is the only way, the most natural way of farming and ranching. After all, "healthy" agriculture has always been sustainable.
New challenges, new horizons
For centuries, agriculture-which is by nature a conservation activity-reiterated ways, activities and rituals that were not always compatible with health and respect for the land. Then my father's generation found itself starting a revolution in which we are still immersed. It is first and foremost a technological and supply chain revolution. After a long period in which agriculture was a purely conservative activity, in recent years we have been faced with very complex challenges. Climate change, for example, which brings with it the need to grow new products through new processes and a marked focus on the ecological footprint that our sector cannot neglect. Increasingly, the agricultural enterprise is part of an "integrated system" in which diversified activities make it a multifunctional enterprise that deals with production, tourist reception (just think of the success of the agritourism model) and innovation, transforming it into a real point of reference for the community in which it operates, without forgetting the active role it plays in the production of energy that it needs to fulfill all these tasks. In this regard, the new agricultural enterprise must be able to engage in dialogue with the processing industry, energy companies, and the trade by working as a system with other agricultural enterprises.
Why BEF Biosystems
BEF Biosystems is the perfect embodiment of a type of economy that synergistically combines the natural characteristics of four elements: energy, insects, food waste, and land economy. It is the essential piece of a system that reduces waste, produces value and increases the economy of agricultural enterprises. For this reason, I feel a bit like an ambassador of this re-discovery of the insect world in the agricultural world. And not just in words.
Starting this year, our farm will be among the first to enter the BEF Biosystems production circuit by engaging our pig farm in the weaning piglets project. Agriculture is faced with a great responsibility and operates in an environment that is radically changing. Therefore, it too must be ready to change, rediscovering its roots as a sustainable activity and guardian of the land, benefiting from synergy with other productive forces, constantly exploring new horizons of production and innovation.
I have a daughter who I hope will inherit the family business. I would like to leave her a company that is healthy, respectful and projected into that future that she will be the one to build."
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