Cascina Belcreda

It all started many years ago in a farm called Cascina Belcreda situated in the western side of Po valley, northern Italy…
One day somebody said:
Let us clean the soil, its products, our body, and then let us bring the soil back to grow products according to the laws of nature, without chemical aids, without forcing the growth as the hand of peasants has wisely done, for thousands of years.

We have thus decided to give life to a site that has taken the best from rustic roots, from traditions that have been handed on centuries ago by the monks who first grew rice on this land.
We have applied the most modern knowledge to a rigorous respect of the soil, to grow a rice that is excellent from every point of view.

With traditional agricultural methods the soil is intensively exploited. This means that, by forcing natural laws, the soil, greatly impoverished, is compelled to yield more than it could naturally do, through the use of external agents:
• weed-killers to get rid of infesting plants
• fertilizers (organic and chemical) used to increase production.

All these chemical and organic products
- penetrate the soil down to the water strata
- modify the vegetal and animal echo-system
- but what is even worse, they are absorbed by agricultural products and, through them, by our body.

Ambience respecting production methods show a much lower productivity than intensive farming.

With ambience respecting production methods it is necessary to go through several stages:

• To clean a traditionally treated soil and make it suitable for biologic farming at least three years of rest are necessary. During these years the soil is in ‘conversion’, which means that it is passing from intensive to biologic farming, which is respectful of natural laws.
• Subsequently the soil can be cultivated, but without the use of fertilizers and weed-killers
• Thus the soil and its fruits are not impregnated by substances dangerous to our health, such as propanil, bentazone, atrazin.
• Yield is quantitatively decidedly smaller, work and controlling tasks during growth become greater and more onerous, but the purpose is decidedly important.
• Every single stage (from seed-time to packaging) is carried out with methods that do not alter nor damage the organoleptic qualities of the aliments; these are submitted to rigorous checks and are‘signed’ by the various responsible actors in the production process.
• Traceability is a further guarantee for all our products.

Organic agriculture
*Says no to the use of fertilizers and of weed killers
*says no to G M O
(Genetically modified organisms)
*Defends the values of nature and of the ambience
*Is a challenge for a healthy and nourishing alimentation