L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 26 L'Italo-Americano A t L u c a Bianchi's farm outside Fabri- ano, in the hills of Italy's Marche region, the wheat grown for pasta does not occupy the same fields year after year. Some seasons the land carries chickpeas or lentils instead, while elsewhere there is alfal- fa, a plant better known as animal fodder. It may seem an unusual way to run a pasta business, particularly when the aim is to produce enough wheat to keep making pasta, but the other crops have a purpose that becomes clear once you look beneath the surface. Bianchi practices regenerative agriculture, an approach that asks farmers to consider what condition their land will be in after the harvest, and what they can do to ensure that it remains pro- ductive for the years ahead. W h e a t i s g r o w n o n a n enormous scale in Italy, and every harvest removes nutri- ents from the ground; grow- ing the same crop repeatedly can also encourage diseases and pests that specialize in it, which is why farmers have long understood the advan- tages of rotating crops, even if modern agriculture has some- times favored simpler sys- tems. Regenerative agricul- t u r e i s b a s e d o n t h i s knowledge, and aims at main- taining or improving the soil's organic matter, structure and biological activity. The idea is that a field should remain capable of supporting future harvests without becoming increasingly dependent on interventions to compensate for declining fertility. Bianchi works more than 7 4 a c r e s , r o t a t i n g d u r u m wheat with chickpeas, lentils and alfalfa, a choice far from b e i n g c a s u a l : t h e y a r e legumes, whose roots develop a relationship with bacteria capable of converting nitro- gen from the atmosphere into forms that plants can use. As roots and other plant residues b r e a k d o w n , s o m e o f t h a t nitrogen can become avail- a b l e t o s u b s e q u e n t c r o p s , although the amount depends on what has been harvested and how the land is managed. Different root systems also support a wider range of soil organisms, while keeping the ground covered helps protect it from erosion and heavy rainfall. None of these princi- ples is especially new, since farmers have been rotating c r o p s f o r c e n t u r i e s , b u t Bianchi is part of a move- ment trying to make their application more systematic and verifiable. H i s f a r m h a s r e c e i v e d Bronze certification under R e g e n e r a t i v e O r g a n i c Certified, or ROC, a stan- dard established in 2017 by the Regenerative Organic Alliance. In July 2026, ICEA, the Italian certification body, c o n f i r m e d t h a t B i a n c h i ' s operation had achieved certi- fication for durum wheat, chickpeas, lentils and alfalfa, and had become the first Ital- ian business to extend use of the ROC mark to flour and pasta. The farm also keeps bees, provides educational activities and has its own mill for processing grain, while the pasta is produced with a s p e c i a l i s t p a r t n e r . T h i s arrangement is worth noting, because traceability does not n e c e s s a r i l y r e q u i r e e v e r y stage of production to take p l a c e o n o n e f a r m ; w h a t counts is that the grain can be followed from the fields through processing to the finished product. The distinction between o r g a n i c a n d r e g e n e r a t i v e farming needs some explana- tion, because the two are often discussed as though one had replaced the other: organic agriculture already operates under rules govern- ing fertilizers, pesticides and other aspects of cultivation, and many organic farmers have been protecting soil fer- tility for decades. Regenera- tive agriculture has no single universally accepted defini- tion, but the ROC standard begins with organic certifica- tion and adds requirements concerning soil health, ani- mal welfare where livestock are involved, and the treat- ment of farmers and agricul- tural workers. Its Bronze, Sil- v e r a n d G o l d l e v e l s a r e subject to inspections, pro- viding consumers with a way of identifying products that have met a particular set of s t a n d a r d s . T h i s d o e s n o t m e a n t h a t e v e r y p r o d u c t described as regenerative carries the ROC certification, o r t h a t c o n v e n t i o n a l a n d organic farmers are necessar- ily neglecting their soil. Once the wheat has been harvested, the next challenge is keeping track of it. Grain may pass through storage facilities, mills, transport companies and pasta manu- facturers before reaching a supermarket shelf, and with- out records identifying each stage, there would be no reli- able way to establish that the pasta in a particular packet came from certified fields. R O C t h e r e f o r e i n c l u d e s requirements governing the handling and traceability of certified ingredients during processing. Bianchi's opera- tion follows the grain from cultivation to finished prod- u c t , w i t h t h e c o m p a n i e s involved in the supply chain required to meet the relevant conditions. For a consumer, the difference may be invisi- ble, but it is essential to mak- ing the certification mean- ingful. W h e t h e r t h e r e s u l t i n g pasta is healthier to eat is a separate question, and one t h a t r e s e a r c h h a s n o t y e t answered conclusively. There is growing interest in the relationship between soil health, farming methods and the nutritional composition of crops, and some studies have reported differences in particular nutrients under different cultivation systems. T h o s e r e s u l t s , h o w e v e r , depend on the crop variety, climate, soil conditions and p r o c e s s i n g m e t h o d s , a n d they do not establish that e a t i n g p a s t a m a d e f r o m regeneratively grown wheat produces measurable health benefits. A certification con- cerned with farming prac- t i c e s s h o u l d t h e r e f o r e b e u n d e r s t o o d a s e v i d e n c e about how the grain was pro- duced, rather than as a guar- antee that the finished pasta is nutritionally superior. Environmental benefits also need to be assessed in context. Practices associated with regenerative agriculture c a n i m p r o v e t h e w a y s o i l absorbs water, reduce ero- sion and support biological activity, although results vary according to local conditions and management. Increasing soil carbon may contribute to climate objectives, but it is neither unlimited nor guar- anteed, and adopting differ- ent farming methods brings costs of its own. A farmer may need new equipment, different approaches to weed control and rotations that include crops for which there must be a viable market. Cer- tification and inspections cost money too, and a small business still needs to earn enough from each year's pro- duction to continue farming. T h i s i s w h a t m a k e s Bianchi's project in Fabriano i n t e r e s t i n g b e y o n d t h e immediate appeal of a new k i n d o f p a s t a . I t b r i n g s together the traditional agri- cultural knowledge behind crop rotation and a modern system intended to docu- ment how food is produced, making decisions taken in the field relevant to what eventually appears on a shop shelf. The grain must still make good pasta, and the business must remain com- mercially viable, but there is now another question to con- sider alongside yield and quality: when wheat returns to the same field after a rota- tion, what condition is the soil in, and has the farming done anything to improve it? CHIARA D'ALESSIO A worker checks freshly milled semolina during processing; inset: a close-up of golden wheat ears ready for harvest (Original images created for L'Italo-Americano with the assistance of AI) Beyond organic: a fresh take on Italian wheat and pasta LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES

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