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History

The Beginning

The co-operative, “La Terra e Il Cielo”, was born on May 5, 1980 by a group of young, ambitious people with strong ideological motivations.
Thanks to the far-sightedness of some managers of the public institute (IRAB), the Coop was able to obtain tree agricultural loans with 32 hectares of land on the sweet, rolling hills of Italy’s Marches Region close to the Adriatic Sea.

The First Activities

From the beginning the cooperative was full of enthusiasm and intensely experimented various methods of Organic Agriculture, farming varieties, and different types of cultivation. The company experimented all types of Organic Agriculture known at the time including Biodynamic Agriculture and Fukuoka Natural Agriculture.
In the first nine years, Biodynamic Agriculture was the principle method chosen by the cooperative which made it the first productive structure in Italy to obtain the Biodynamic trademark for its pasta.
Due to an unfavorable economic return in managing both the Organic and Biodynamic sectors (be it for the materials or for the products), the cooperative decided to favor and diffuse the same rigorous method of Organic Agriculture for all its affiliates.

DIFFUSING ORGANIC AGRICULTURE

The co-operative has distinguished itself in two major ways. Firstly, for the perseverance for which it pursues Organic and Ecological quality of its products. Secondly, for the intense activity it has carried out in spreading Organic Agriculture in the Marches and throughout Italy. Here are some of our notable activities:
  • Adherence to the Italian Association for Agricultural Biodynamics.
  • Promotion to the foundation of the Marches Regional Department for Biodynamic Agriculture.
  • Promotion of the Organic Fair in Senagallia with adherence from producers in all of Italy.
  • Participation at the National Meetings, ”Cos’e’ Biologico”, to define the first Organic provisions in Italy.
  • Participation in drafting proposals for CEE Organic Provisions.
  • Foundation of “AMAB” Association for Organic Agriculture, recognized by the Minister of Agriculture in 1993.
  • Participation in the founding of AMAB.
  • Participation in the founding of Marche BIO, a consortium of organic products in the Marches Region.
  • Participation and promotion of various initiatives, meetings, conferences and seminars on Organic Agriculture.

Marketing and Processing

From the beginning, the cooperative has carried out the decision to process and market its own products. In this way, durum wheat becomes pasta, soft wheat becomes bread, barley becomes coffee, sheep’s milk becomes pecorino and ricotta cheese. This decision became necessary for the following reasons:
  • Not to lose the organic qualities of raw materials when using stockpiles and traditional processing.
  • To control every productive step from the raw materials to the final product
  • To provide work for our own working members
  • To offer other Organic Agriculturists the possibility to obtain favorable prices for their personal production

Co-operative of Working Members and Agricultural Affiliates

The tendency to favor agriculturists who convert to the organic method along with commercial success obtained in both Italy and abroad allows for quite a unique internal framework. Not only a cooperative with working members but more and more a COOP formed by a number of small and mid-sized agricultural producers who own their own companies specializing in Organic Agriculture.
These companies, in turn, confer their primary substances to the COOP for processing and marketing along with their own finished products when they have them (such as wine and oil).

FARMING MEMBERS

Ninety small to mid-sized companies that specialize in organic agriculture constitute the Co-operative’s farming members. They are mainly located throughout the region of the Marches but some of them are in neighboring regions such as Umbria, Toscana and Abruzzo, or in some cases a little further.

The farming members form an important foundation for the Cooperative. They are responsible for producing high quality raw materials, which the Cooperative processes and markets.

The central part of Italy is particularly suited for the production of grains (principally durum wheat, soft wheat, barley, spelt and millet), sunflowers, olive oil, and wine. Other areas favor the production of legumes (lentils, chickpeas, beans, chicklings), other grains such as maize and oats, or vegetables such as fennel and tomatoes.

The farming members supplied the Cooperative with considerable financial assistance, with nominal capital and loans, which notably eased the realization of the new headquarters.

NEW FARMING MEMBERS: The Cooperative will accept only those agricultural companies which have all of their land (not simply part of it) converted to certified organic methods like all its current members.