My name is Maria Luisa Terrenzio. I have lived in the countryside all my life. I don't need aphorisms and catchphrases about my relationship with the countryside: all I have to do is go back in time and every memory binds me to it. I recognise from the earth the colour of the seasons, the nuances of the crisp air at sunset and the heat of summer: the season I love most in the countryside. It smells of freshly picked tomatoes, has the sound of harvesting trucks and the voices of barking dogs and those who work together on a daily basis. I spent most of my summers in the countryside: I love summer in the countryside even today, when I am more aware of it and always equally joyful. Work on the family farm is a passion even before a farm job, passed down from generation to generation. If I close my eyes, I can still see myself as a child in the long, tiring rides on my bicycle through the wheat fields, and from afar, my grandmother's voice calling me to help her make homemade sauce. I have always known that I wanted to return to our land, trying to add value to Prima Bio by being able to study outside the city. Many things have remained utterly unchanged in all this time, beginning with our promise to preserve the biodiversity of the agricultural landscape and to protect our lands of strategic importance for our supply. For four years now, I have been working in the sales and marketing department of our cooperative. I started working in the family business as soon as I graduated and immediately felt welcomed and valued. We are a family business, so each of us has a very important role in Prima Bio. As a member of Generation 3.0, I'm going to try to implement the perfect marriage between tradition and innovation, between what I saw my grandfather do and what I hope one day to achieve in practice, thanks to my course of study in economy and marketing which is always focused on turning dreams into opportunities. I am really happy to have joined CrowdFarming, because this will allow us to create a direct relationship between us and you. When you open on of our bottle you can really smell the scent of freshly picked tomatoes with the true flavour of Apulian tradition.

Imagine the Gargano area, in northern Apulia. In this place, 8 kilometres from the town of Rignano Garganico, a small promontory rises up with a flat expanse of squared fields in front of it, where the land changes colour with the passing of the seasons and where in summer the yellow of the wheat explodes, making everything shine. In this landscape, Prima Bio farm has been cultivating the land with passion for four generations now, putting heart and soul into its territory and firmly fighting for workers' rights. We grow many different products in our fields, but the main ones are tomatoes (from which you can taste the sauce), broccoli and asparagus. Officially an organic farming cooperative since 1998, our cooperative has farming in its blood. Our grandfather and grandmother, both from Abruzzo, met in Foggia’s area (Puglia), he was a farmer and she came from a family of sheep farmers. Their shared love of the land convinced them to settle there and buy several hectares in the area, thus starting a farming business that was destined to grow with the arrival of their children and later become an organic cooperative. Our products are made only by organic raw materials that we harvest, select and process within the day. From the field to the processing, we follow an attentive manufacturing process that does not alter the taste of our land. We have several hectares under management, a good part of which - practically our best land - is reserved for organic tomatoes. In addition to these hectares there are others on which my father wanted to build a greenhouse where we can create a tomato seedling that suits our needs and grow it as we wish, following it step by step. Once our fresh organic tomatoes are ripe, they are picked and processed on the same day, thus maintaining the authentic taste of home-made tomato puree. At Prima Bio we use techniques that allow us to use water rationally and sensibly. Thanks to two large rainwater collection reservoirs, we are able to meet a large part of our daily needs for processing our products and irrigating our land. In addition, in order to ensure targeted and localised irrigation of our crops, and to reduce water consumption, we use drip irrigation exclusively. Choosing organic today means choosing wellbeing and health, keeping pace with the times and resources that nature is constantly offering us. We are certified organic for more than 15 years. At the beginning we wanted to approach the organic market in a "pioneering" way, proposing our fruit and vegetable products to consumers who were still uninformed and unwilling to change. In the meantime, the demand for organic products grew and, after a lot of hard work and dedication, we were able to conquer a stable place in a niche market, both nationally and internationally. For more than 15 years Prima Bio has held organic certifications (ICEA) that give the consumer the right-duty to "be good by doing good". We distinguish ourselves from conventional producers through the use of materials, technologies and solutions that enhance and do not damage the surrounding environment by reducing the movement of goods, from harvesting to processing. To combat harmful insects, we use pheromone traps, which allow us to control them without using chemicals. To avoid excessive soil stress, we rotate crops annually between all our fields, leaving some fallow each year. Finally, we put hives on the farm for pollination. These bees help us to pollinate the cultivated plants, but they also encourage the fructification of the wild plants that are present near the farm. In addition, as soon as the fresh produce shift is over, the waste is reused in a very simple and economical way, becoming the main food for the more than 400 sheep on my father's farm. Controlling all aspects of production, we are busy in the fields throughout the year. Our season starts with the sowing of tomatoes in the greenhouse, from which the seedlings we plant in the field will grow. In the meantime, we prepare the soil for planting the plants. When the plants are in the field, we check them weekly to avoid attacks from harmful insects or fungi and to make sure we have the right amount of water. When the ripening phase begins, we collect the tomatoes that are ripe for processing on a daily basis and bring them to our workshop where they are processed and where the finished product is stored. The energy we use comes from photovoltaic and biomass plants, to guarantee the quality and sustainability of our products, but also of our land. Prima Bio is among the top 100 agricultural companies for its focus on sustainability in the AGRIcoltura100 project. We believe in zero km. We have always sown, grown, harvested and processed all our products. We put the same commitment and attention into the work dynamics. The objectives we have set ourselves are to offer first and foremost a decent and ethical job in agriculture, respecting and placing the human factor at the centre of our work. For this reason, all our employees have a regular contract, complying with current legislation Since 2018, we have joined the NO CAP - Rete per La Terra (Network for the Earth) planning all the harvesting, storage and processing phases in a network of companies, supporting ourselves and writing a new story in this way. By adhering to this new project we have given the right value to all the parties involved, putting the true wealth, the human being, at the centre, and offering a fair product at the right price.