Mulino Bianco rewards winners of the 'I Fiori del Mulino' photography competition

The initiative that rewards the farm that has distinguished itself in cultivating the most beautiful flowering field

ROME - The third edition of 'I Fiori del Mulino', the Mulino Bianco photographic competition which rewards the farm that has distinguished itself in cultivating the most beautiful flowering field, has reached its third edition.With this edition, the areas dedicated to 'I Fiori del Mulino' have reached 1900 hectares, an area equal to over 2,500 football pitches.All companies adhere to the Carta del Mulino, the sustainable agriculture specification dedicated to soft wheat flour, which provides 10 rules that participating farmers must comply with.Among the objectives of the Charter is to allocate 3% of soft wheat fields every year to flowers that favor pollination, in order to safeguard the ecosystem of bees and insects and biodiversity.A concrete commitment made of real oases of ecological interest which, not being treated with chemical products and having a gradual and prolonged flowering, allow the settlement of pollinating insects, natural predators of parasites and small animals.An ambitious project supported by numbers:a scientific research conducted by the University of Bologna has measured the benefits on the increase in terms of biodiversity and the number of species of useful insects and plant species following the adhesion of companies to the Carta del Mulino.What emerges, comparing the fields with the Fiori del Mulino areas with those without, is an increase in 4 years of 64% of wild bees, 42% of butterflies and 40% of hoverflies.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FLOWER FIELDS IN MODENA:THE BOSCOGRANAI COMPANY OF GALLERANI VITTORIO & C.S.S WINS

The flower fields of Modena took first and second place of this edition of 'I Fiori del Mulino'. The winner was the Boscogranai company of Gallerani Vittorio & C.S.S., a company registered with the Carta del Mulino only this year but which won the top step of the podium. In second place, the Modena-based company Ferrarini Paolo, which has been adhering to the Carta del Mulino for two years. In third place, however, a company from Rovigo, the agricultural company "S.Basilio" of Dr. Fabbri & C.S.S., a member of the Charter for three years.The most beautiful flower fields were chosen by a jury made up of WWF and Mulino Bianco, who selected the best 20 photographic shots, and then by consumers, who voted to choose the finalists and the winner.“This annual competition aims to recognize the role of thousands of agricultural companies which, by adhering to the Mill Charter, are committed to cultivating wheat in a sustainable way and become part of a project to defend biodiversity.It is exciting to see how the promise of nature, which has always been part of the brand's communication, is translated into concrete actions.But above all, knowing that this commitment will one day become a biscuit, a snack or a slice of bread fills us with pride" said Andrea Dipace, marketing manager of Mulino Bianco.

CARTA DEL MULINO GROWS WITH OVER 2 THOUSAND COMPANIES ADHERING TO THE SPECIFICATIONS.AND THE BARILLA FARMING DIGITAL PLATFORM ALSO ARRIVES

The La Carta del Mulino project started in 2019 continues to grow and today involves over 100 Mulino Bianco products made with 100% soft wheat flour from sustainable agriculture.A result that covers the vast majority of the brand's entire product portfolio, a big leap forward compared to 2020, when there were only 17 products.The project was welcomed with great enthusiasm by all operators in the soft wheat supply chain:the agricultural companies that have adhered to the specifications have in fact gone from 500 in 2020 to 2172 today and in 2023 alone they produced 317,000 tonnes of wheat for 244,000 tonnes of flour.However, Barilla's attention to sustainability does not stop here, as it states Orlando Visciano, responsible for the sustainable soft wheat supply chain:“We have developed with Xfarm, CNR (National Research Council) and LCE (Life Cycle Engineering) a digital platform which, through agriculture 4.0 tools and decision support, will aim to guide farmers and operators in the supply chain in increasingly prudent choices and respectful of the environment”.

THE SOC-RATE PROJECT TO MEASURE SOIL HEALTH IS LAUNCHED

Barilla contributes as the only partner to the SOC-RATE (Soil Organic Carbon RATE) scientific research project, carried out in collaboration with the Institute for Bioeconomy of the National Research Council (CNR-IBE), which aims to measure fertility and soil health in a simple, fast, accurate and economical way compared to traditional methods.Started in 2021, the project has great scientific and applicative value because, while existing laboratory methods require the sampling of portions of soil and are bound to the times of laboratory analyses, with this new approach it will be possible to measure and monitor the state of remote soil health, through satellite images, promptly conveying information to the supply chains in order to support farmers who will undertake the process of regenerating soils and territories.“With this system, the time and costs for measuring soil health are reduced thanks to a model that uses data acquired from the ESA-Copernicus satellite platforms – he says Flavio Bertinaria, Agronomy research Barilla – To train the algorithm underlying this system, we analyzed 600 soil samples, representative of all the variability that characterizes the soft wheat cultivation areas in Italy.In the future, thanks to this data and satellite images, we will be able to measure, with the right accuracy, the organic carbon present in soils and evaluate their state of health".