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MIPAAF

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali – MIPAAF) develops and coordinates the lines of agricultural, forestry, agri-food and fisheries at the national, European and international level. http://www.politicheagricole.it/

The presence of garlic in the Polesine area dates from the Romans who built reclamation works and created agricultural land by greatly modifying the hydrogeology of the area. Evidence of this comes from the writings of Perretto and Marangano in the publication “La Centuriazione dell’Agro di Adria” in which the cultivation of garlic is described as...

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Spressa delle Giudicarie DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) is one of the oldest cheeses of the Alps and one of the most recent to receive DOP status within Italy. Definitive approval was only obtained on 26 January 2004, when it was entered the Register of Protected Designations of Origin, which protects its quality within Italy and Europe. Spr...

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The air in the hills of Parma is fragrant: once the sea breeze from the Versilia coast has acquired the aroma of the pine trees, it is scoured by the karst Cisa mountains, losing all its saltiness, and finally wafts over scented chestnut groves. It is therefore a dry air, ideal for the curing process.  An essential condition for obtaining Prosciutt...

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Dairy production in Friuli began in 1200 A.D. thanks to the efforts of the Benedictine monks of the Moggio Udinese Abbey. Montasio cheese takes its appellation from the mountain range in the Julian Alps of the same name, on the southern slopes of which there lies a vast plateau, home to the Montasio dairies and a wealth of pastures. A second unifyi...

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There is no clear indication of the precise moment when olives were first cultivated on the land around Garda. Some writings mention a climatically favorable period between the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD, to which an initial, slow but progressive introduction of olive growing can be traced. This is confirmed by various plant residues dis...

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The origins of Mortadella Bologna are to be found in the area of ancient Etruscan Felsina and the Bonomia of the Gallic Boii, places rich in oak forests that provided tasty acorns for the numerous local swine, both wild and domesticated. There are two theories regarding the origin of the name: one is that it derives from “murtatum”, meaning meat fi...

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Provolone Valpadana was created in the region between the Lambro and Adda rivers thanks to the reclamation and canalisation of the waters by the Cistercian monks. Its creation was the result of an encounter between the South Italian cheese culture of spun curd and the approach to cheese and dairy found in the Po Valley.  In fact, cheeses known as “...

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Carota Novella di Ispica first made their appearance in 1955, but were not cultivated and exported until 1968. The merit for this goes to the Curto farm, which also indicated the production area under the Carota Novella di Ispica name, which was later established definitively. Among the first farmers to grow “Ispica New Carrots” were the Caia broth...

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The liquorice plant was most likely imported to Calabria by the Greeks around 700 BC. These places have the ideal microclimate and habitat that allowed the development of a different ecotype, as shown by the genetic mapping that allows its differentiation from liquorice coming from other sources.  To understand the origins and development of this a...

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The art of preserving pork was firmly established in the Tuscany region by the Middle Ages. This can be seen from the number of laws governing the slaughter of pigs and the preservation of pork already in place at the time of Charlemagne. Prosciutto Toscano comes from an old tradition of Tuscan farmers, who would slaughter a pig fattened for a year...

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Caciocavallo Silano DOP is without doubt one of the oldest and most typical spun curd cheeses of southern Italy. It was mentioned by Hippocrates in 500 B.C. when describing the art used by the Greeks when preparing “Cacio” (cheese). This dairy tradition, which originated in the Sila Plateau, gradually expanded along the Apennine ridge in southern I...

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The introduction of olive cultivation in Sardinia is attributable to populations of Minoan origin who refined the local olives with repeated pruning and grafting in the period between the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. Thanks to the establishment of several important areas of olive groves in south-central Sardinia, olive growing underwent signif...

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