We scroll through our shopping list or a restaurant menu. Leading the way we undoubtedly find one ingredient: flour. This “white gold”-the common denominator of several Italian food and wine specialties-can no longer be separated from sustainable production practices.
This was the starting point of the event “Green Gold: transforming supply chains for farmers and the environment,” which compared the experience of different players in this supply chain: Domenico Brugnoni, president of Pro Agri and Oirz farmer; Michele Zerbini, Barilla flour sector purchasing manager; Edoardo Cicchinelli, founder of Ethical Food Selection; Alberto Figna, president of Agugiaro and Figna Molini; and Mattia Lattanzio and Giovanni Giglio, entrepreneurs of the Extremis pizzeria, with agronomist Daniele Paci conducting. “The necessary starting point is awareness on the part of all players in the supply chain,” Zerbini explains, “from the farmer, who must be prepared to pursue sustainability; to the consumer, who must be aware that with his or her choices he or she has the power to direct the market. Sustainability can thus become a factor in competitiveness, first and foremost for the farmers themselves. “Italian wheat cannot be paid more as such, it has to have something more,” Brugnoni explains, “it has to rely on relentless traceability and qualities that can be perceived by the consumer. Sustainability is undoubtedly among them.” But how is the market responding to this new orientation and the costs it may entail? Edoardo Cicchinelli responds that “today there is more sensitivity, it is the restaurateurs themselves who are asking to have sustainable and researched products, and to communicate them together with the final customer.” Confirming this view are Lattanzio and Giglio of Extremis, for whom communication is central, and regarding costs they say, “Raw material has a different kind of price, it is true, but it can be amortized by containing waste.”
Pulling the strings of an intense dialogue lends itself to Figna’s words, “seeing how realities as diverse as those present today have the same desire to pursue sustainability and communicate it to the customer is important: these projects only work if the customer is informed.”