05-11-2019
Tommaso Cannata, Giuseppe Li Rosi and Corrado Assenza at Jurnate di Simenza. All the photos are from Concetta Bonini
«We’re creating a new economy based on cereal bio-difference», Giuseppe Li Rosi says. «We need innovation and quality, not large volumes», Corrado Assenza explains. What may appear as a divergence has instead some common grounds at the Jurnate di Simenza, the symposium that took place last month in the magnificent castle of Montalbano Elicona, a stone village where time appears to have stopped, in the inland of Messina. An only seeming stop (Assenza) and go (Li Rosi), harmonised by a shared vision which is the foundation of Simenza’s adventure, the Cumpagnia Siciliana Sementi Contadine born on the 20th of February 2016, now with 200 members, mostly among agricultural entrepreneurs – as well as processing entrepreneurs – which president Li Rosi explains as such: «We’re not a cooperative or a consortium, but a cultural association. At the same time, we realise that we need to offer an economic outlet for our activity, and we’re working in that direction».
The speech of Giuseppe Li Rosi
Simenza is a community of Sicilian farmers and breeders, the custodians and promoters of the agricultural biodiversity of the island. The crucial goal, that led to the birth of the association, was the recording of the over 50 ecotypes of indigenous wheat available in Sicily in the national Registry of varieties for the preservation of agricultural species, so as to avoid that genetic resources, which by right belong to farmers, turn into a mere tool of speculation.(...) (Simenza) is born to safeguard the precious heritage of Sicily: its biodiversity. It does so as a Cumpagnìa or Community where every farmer, breeder, miller, baker, and pasta producer safeguards and gives value to local resources.
Now they’re trying to do something more:
Our goal is a new entrepreneurial model capable of putting together farmers’ knowledge and good practices with the use of sustainable production techniques. What we at Simenza call “retro innovation”.
For Simenza the time has come for the cultural battle to meet financial issues, because «only a Community in dialogue with science and market or trade fairs can safeguard the common good».
Li Rosi sums up: «We want to change people’s mentality, and this is already taking place. In Sicily 13 civilizations have passed, in over 7K years of history. So every day we face mane differences in the same area: in fact it’s in this confrontation of different identities that we find the energy and our raison of being. We have 25% of European biodiversity, 50% of the Italian biodiversity, with 52 microclimatic regions». A heritage worth defending: «In Europe they’re regulating our agriculture’s “blends” of cereals: that’s what we were born for, to control and sometimes to correct, and if necessary to limit or even fight these projects, thanks to the millennial wisdom that rests in our fields».
To the left, Piero Gabrieli
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
«Simenza is a beautiful word. It’s concretely connected with soil and diet and has a powerful evocation and connection to humanity». Corrado Assenza showed the two souls of this archetype in a farmers’ expression of contemporary pastry making
The cake from Corrado Assenza: shortcrust pastry made with Evolutiva wheat, cream of Roman almond and apple jam with verdello lemon in the middle, and russello wheat on top
Two more speakers at Jurnate di Simenza: Lillo Freni and Tommaso Cannata
Pizzaiolo Friedrich Schmuck and his evolutive dough
Tommaso Cannata and Giuseppe Li Rosi
Matteo La Spada, of L’Orso from Messina, prepared a pizza in the Roman style with Evolutiva
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journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief