Edmondo Soffritti, from Azienda Agricola La Petrosa, is the son of 2 generations of farmers. After having inherited the 60-ha farm he still manages, he wanted to find an alternative to the conventional way of farming his family used, that was heavily dependent on external inputs, destroyed biodiversity, eroded soils and was therefore not resilient. After a journey through organic and biodynamic farming systems, he later found the answer in regenerative agriculture. Since then, he grows a variety of crops, including olive trees, pistachios, legumes, local vegetables, but first and foremost cereal populations. A concept inherited from the past and brought back to light by the hard work of Salvatore Ceccarelli, an italian geneticist, populations are a group of seeds with a very diverse genetic pool. By sowing every year a part of the harvest, farmers can rely on the high rate of biodiversity found by the spontaneous cross pollination of flowers and natural genetic mutations, but most importantly they choose the environment – considering farming systems, micro- and macroclimate, the weather, pests and diseases,- as the selective pressure that every year “chooses” the plants that are best fit for the changing environment. These farming systems ensure a high rate of resilience, and ultimately regenerate the soil, while storing carbon in the soil, which in turn acts as a generator of life and develops further resilience and reduces dependence on external inputs.
Contact: www.lapetrosa.it/
