Hydroponics farm in Italy grows plants using fortified water
ROME: The Italian tomato is prized around the world, but its reputation has soured in recent years over reports of mafia infiltration, slave labour and toxic fires that poison water sources.
Southern Europe’s biggest hydroponics farm is out to change all that, by growing pesticide-free crops in environmentally friendly greenhouses — and geting bees to do the hard work.
Set among organic vineyards in Tuscany, Sfera Agricola was launched in 2015 by Luigi Galimberti as a response to repeated UN warnings that food production will need to increase sharply to feed the growing global population.
“The UN reminds us every year that by 2050 there will be 10 billion of us, and we’ll need double the amount of water and double the land to produce food for everyone,” Galimberti said.
“Along with the problems of a suddenly changing climate, which is having an ever-greater impact on farming, it pushed me to imagine a more efficient, technological way of farming that produces more with less,” he said.
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using water fortified with mineral nutrients and oxygen instead.
Galimberti’s farm produces a kilogramme of tomatoes or letuce using just two litres of water, compared to 75 in fields, he says.
Of those two litres, over 90 per cent is collected rainwater.
It relies on natural organisms to control pests and disease and the few plants that need to be treated chemically are separated and their fruit destroyed.
“We use bumblebees to pollinate the flowers, and we release a series of insect predators to combat the insects we fear,” Galimberti said, adding that it had led to the creation of new bee colonies in a boost for the local ecosystem.
Pickers shutle back and forth on solarpowered platforms, delicately tying back the plants’ upper branches as the fruit below ripens.
Further on, vast basins shimmer in the midday heat where styrofoam boards holding baby letuces are floated on a nutrient-rich, oxygenated solution.
As the company expands, it hopes to grow cabbages, spinach, courgetes, peppers and aubergines as well.
Galimberti tapped private investors and banks to raise the 20 million euros ($22.4 million) needed to open the 13-hectare greenhouse, which now employs 230 people and produces crops every day of the year.
Italian tomatoes — particularly the canned variety — have received bad press in recent years, with rights charities warning that foreign workers are effectively used as slave labour.
The fruit dubbed “red gold”, destined for supermarket shelves around the world, is plucked in back-breaking conditions under a pitiless sun, for pitiful wages, largely by Africans who live in shanty towns.
The illegal dumping and burning of toxic waste particularly in southern Italy has also spooked consumers over recent decades, amid reports of contaminated farm produce and a sharp rise in cancers, malformations and birth defects.
The so-called “agro-mafia” business — the infiltration of organised crime along the agrifood chain in Italy, from pickers to distributors — is worth 24.5 billion euros, according to a July report by farming association Coldireti.
“The exploitation of workers combined with exhausting conditions make picking in the south an ignoble job,” said Galimberti, who says his company’s proper contracts and paid overtime are “a rare thing in the sector”.
Sfera Agricola has bet on a return to the Italian tomato’s glory days, producing three varieties that have fallen out of favour with farmers and distributors, but that the company is “bringing back to supermarket shelves”.
“Over the last 50 years, the market has evolved rapidly for distribution and commercial reasons. Tomato skins have thickened so they last longer on the shelf, and the fruit no longer drops off the vine when ripe,” he said.
Thanks to the cubes of rockwool — a hydroponic growing medium that mimics soil and supports the roots — “the plant is protected and we can use older, weaker varieties,” he added.
Those have thinner skins and tend to fall off the plant when ripe, so they have to be picked and eaten relatively quickly, he said.
“But they do not have ‘innovative’ characteristics, which gives them a flavour advantage,” Galimberti said.
He aims to build 500 hectares of hydroponic greenhouses in the next 10 years, to become one of the biggest players in the sector in Europe.
But his toughest competition may be much smaller, and closer to home.
“In Italy almost everyone has someone in their family who produces their own tomatoes. Or their neighbour does, or the old man next door.”
The tomato plant arrived in Italy from Central America in the later years of the 1500s.
The climate of southern Europe and especially Italy was so favourable to the cultivation of the ‘pomme d’amour’ or ‘apple of love’ that the vegetable soon became one of the most popular elements in Mediterranean cuisine.
And as we all know, tomato based sauces soon become essential condiments for pasta and were even added to more traditional dishes to become ‘new’ classics such as ‘amatriciana’.
There are many varieties of tomato in Italy with sub types within each. Italy cultivates most of them, so lets put things in order.
The city of Naples and region of Campania are rightly associated first with Italian tomatoes.
They first were brought here by the Spanish and this is also the territory where the industrial preservation and transformation of the tomato began.
One of the most popular varieties is ‘San Marzano’ (Pomodoro S.marzano dell’agro Sarnese-nocerino DOP), a long shaped tomato mostly grown in the zone of Salerno. They are considered best for creating a sauce.
A small guide we have to the tomato from the promotional authorities of the Valle del Sarno suggests a visit to local restaurants and tratorie in the towns of Angri, Castel San Giorgio, Corbara, Nocera (inferiore & Superiore), Pagani, San Marzano sul Sarno, San Valentino Torio, Sant’egidio del Monte Albino, Sarno, Scafati and Siano. You should be asking for ragù ‘pippei’ with tagliolini or a salad with pomodorino from Corbara.
Around Vesuvius you’ll find ‘Pomodorino Vesuviani’.
Like San Marzano it is certified DOP so guaranteeing its location of cultivation and the rich lava soils of the volcano. It is quite small, sweet, very red and can be recognised by a tear drop shape at each end.
They are picked during the summer in litle bunches called ‘Piennolo’.
In Sicily the most famous variety is Pachino (Pomodoro di Pachino IGP). They are small and round, as are ‘Ciliegino di Pachino’ or cherry tomatoes which we are probably all familiar with.
They both taste sweet and are oten combined with seafood dishes, as well as being ideal for decorative effects on salads and side dishes.