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It wasn’t long after I moved to the tiny village of Pieve di Compresseto in the heart of Italy that I discovered the secret to living a long, healthy life. Of the 100 people who live here, at least 70 of them are senior citizens and many have lived into their 90s. Maria, the town’s matriarch, will be 103 this year. While she physically doesn’t get...

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Italian seasoning is a dry herb mix, usually consisting of basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, and marjoram. Each one of the Italian seasoning ingredients serves a distinct culinary purpose in the mix to help create an earthy, aromatic flavor that comes across with slight peppery and sweet notes. And each herb has a tie to classic Italian cuisine. Bas...

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Francesca Orlandini carefully picks up a struggling bee from the ground, then deposits it in the grass safely away from human activity. Like a mother hen watching over her chicks, she watches as the bee slowly recovers from its ordeal and then buzzes lethargically towards the hives. This is her job. Francesca is the beekeeper at Borgo Pignano, a be...

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The Italian Milling Industry Association (ITALMOPA) hosted nearly 50 Italian dignitaries and U.S. food industry leaders at a March 7, 2023, dinner to celebrate its Pure Flour from Europe program. Co-funded by the European Union, ITALMOPA's program promotes the superior quality, safety and versatility of Italian and European organic flour and semoli...

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The climate crisis is also being felt in the red canning industry. In 2022, a total of 37,024 hectares were cultivated with processing tomatoes in the Northern Italian regions. This figure is down 4% from last year, especially in the western Emilia-Romagna provinces, but remains higher than the average area cultivated over the last five years. Lead...

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Drought is changing Italian agriculture. Goodbye rice in the North, but vines, olive trees and soybeans are coming. Climate change is alarming, which is why vines, olive cultivation and oil production are increasingly moving north, to areas unthinkable a few years ago, such as in Piedmont. The same fate befalls vines, which, because of high tempera...

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When Salvatore Di Gaetano founded Firriato, he had very clear guidelines within which to develop his project: "Firriato was born in the late Seventies, the first harvest dates back to 1978, in a historical period in which agriculture and Sicilian oenology were oriented towards high production to create blended wines," says Federico Lombardo di Mont...

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On an overcast winter morning, the four acres of Wild Roots Farm look pretty dormant to the untrained eye. A string of winter storms and some 20-degree nights have left what looks like rows of muddy soil with spots of wilting vegetation mixed in. But Mary Colombo sees things a little differently. “On the outside it’s all slimy and dead,” said Colom...

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From climate change to “nutriscore”, from labels with the “Health Warning” to fake news, from the energy crisis to unfair competition on the markets, to support Italian agri-food in facing these new global challenges arrive the research and international scientific communication on geographical indications, which, from food to wine, no longer repre...

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If you've ever been to Italy, you might have noticed that the fruits featured in many dinners and desserts are ones you know and love. Lemons, oranges, apples, pears, and peaches are all commonly seen and tasted. But there's one important fruit that rarely appears on the menu: citrus bergamot. Once you see a picture of bergamot, the lack of it on m...

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