My name is Massimo Tomasoni and together with my father, my mother and my two brothers (Alberto - order preparation, and Stefano - our cheesemaker) we carry on the traditional cheese production of our family, in particular the production of Grana Padano. In addition to Grana Padano, we produce other types of soft cheese. We produce cheese because it is our passion, we want to continue the centuries-old family history. We produce and sell organic cheeses for many families in the village and we also want to introduce our product to families in other European countries. What motivates us most is undoubtedly the desire to change our territory, trying to create a sustainable food community. Three other families work with us. Our commitment to improving our local area took shape especially between 2015 and 2018, when we managed to get two farms in our municipality to transition to Organic Farming and to convert part of our baker's production into organic loaves of bread and cakes, using flour from our organically grown fields. Since 2019, a beekeeper has been added, who from January 2022 will begin the process of converting to Organic Apiculture. A circular commitment that has also involved our mayor for a few years now, who has allowed us to introduce some of our products into the town's school canteens. In the near future, we would like to be able to create a food community and a society sensitive to our territory, not only for food production, but also to be able to reappropriate the countryside for their physical and mental wellbeing. Every day I get up at 4:00 a.m. and with the help of my breeders we start milking our cows. The milk is transported to the dairy around 9:00 a.m. ready to be collected in large tanks. The cheese making follows the processes and recipes handed down from our ancestors. We then prepare our cheeses for dispatch and deliver them in the early afternoon. A third of our production is shipped to Italian families located about 100km from us, mainly in the Milan area. We started selling directly to consumers in 2002. Today, almost 20 years later, we serve more than 2,000 families and this is an achievement that rewards us for the commitment and energy we put into our work. What has led us to join the CrowdFarming family is undoubtedly the shared values of food ethics, environmental protection and that little bit of courage that always helps. Crowdfarming is the right evolution on a European scale of our direct selling model.

Our company is called "Biocaseificio Tomasoni", it was founded in 1815 and the recipe has been handed down from father to son. The name of the company goes back to our family business, as we are the 6th generation to produce Grana cheese. Together with my brothers and specialised breeders, I take care of the entire production process: from milking to the final product. Our cows and our dairy are immersed in the typical agricultural landscape of the Po Valley, precisely in Gottolengo, which is 30km from Brescia, 30km from Cremona and 45km from Mantua. In 2014 we started to involve farmers and breeders from our municipality in this conversion project. Since 2015, 2 farms that produce milk and cereals, the baker of our municipality and a company that produces honey have joined our project. Our goal is also to succeed in converting all the farmers and breeders in our territory towards Organic Farming. The water we use is taken from a well on the farm and is used as drinking water for the animals and washing the milking equipment. The daily consumption is about 100 litres per adult animal and 30/40 litres for young animals. On our farms the cows graze freely on meadows of medicinal herbs. We do not use antibiotic treatments on the animals, nor do we use herbicides or pesticides. We have been producing organic Grana Padano since 2000, our cows graze freely in our fields and we do not use antibiotics, pesticides or herbicides. We want to increase the biodiversity of the grasslands to encourage honey production and create naturalistic areas to recreate habitats that give shelter to insects and native wildlife. Since 2018 we have been investing in renewable energy sources and currently have 40 KW photovoltaic panels installed on our roofs and will install another 60 next year. We have also installed a hot water storage tank. By 2030 we would like our electricity footprint to be "zero" with the aim of buying an electric tractor. Being a family business, we all feel equal and important. There are 12 of us in the dairy (7 men and 5 women). I, Massimo Tomasoni, am in charge of the dairy, my brother Stefano is the cheesemaker, i.e. the one who processes the milk to create cheese. My brother Alberto handles the preparation of orders. All the work is still controlled by our father, who has been a cheesemaker for more than 50 years. Our multicultural team has regular contracts with wages in line with national collective agreements. We collaborate with local farmers to control and manage our cows so that nothing is ever missing and to ensure that they are always in good condition. All the milk produced on our farms is collected and processed into cheese: there is no over-collection. The whey, which is the waste from production, is concentrated and used to feed the calves, and we recover water from this process which is used in the dairy for washing and rinsing. All the waste produced is sorted. All of these cows produce an average of 15 to 18 l/g of milk for the production of organic Grana cheese with vegetable rennet, but above all a farming style linked to ancient traditions.