Ilaria Zappitelli – Page 2

Green Cooperatives: The New Face of Italy’s Cereal Supply Chains

by Ilaria ZappitelliWheat Production 7 November 20257 November 2025Comments are Disabled

Wheat has always connected communities and families — and now, it connects them through sustainability.Across Italy, green cooperatives are transforming agriculture by sharing tools, data, and values: innovation, ecology, and fairness. From Agricultural to Environmental Cooperatives Traditional farming cooperatives, once focused on shared machinery and credit, are now evolving into environmental cooperatives.They combine food production …

Ethics and Sustainability in the Price of Bread

by Ilaria ZappitelliWheat Production 7 November 20257 November 2025Comments are Disabled

One euro for a loaf may seem fair — but it hides a long, complex chain: fields, transport, energy, milling, and retail.Bread is both a symbol and a mirror of our food system, revealing how little we value the true cost of sustainability. What Does a Loaf Really Cost? Farmers receive only 8–12 cents for …

Hydrogen and Wheat Logistics: Decarbonizing the Supply Chain

by Ilaria ZappitelliWheat Production 7 November 20257 November 2025Comments are Disabled

Every grain of wheat travels a long road before becoming bread or pasta.From farms to silos, mills, and ports, transportation plays a major role in the cereal sector’s carbon footprint.The challenge for the coming decades is to cut emissions not only in fields but across the entire supply chain — and green hydrogen is emerging …

Agri-Photovoltaics and Cereal Farming: Coexistence or Competition for Land?

by Ilaria ZappitelliWheat Production 7 November 20257 November 2025Comments are Disabled

Across Europe, solar panels are rising among wheat fields.The race for renewable energy has sparked a key question: can food and energy production share the same land, or are they destined to compete? The Land Dilemma Arable land is limited — and shrinking.In Italy, only 7% of land is suitable for cultivation, while urbanization and …

Biofertilizers and the Soil Microbiome: The New Frontier of Fertility

by Ilaria ZappitelliWheat Production 7 November 20257 November 2025Comments are Disabled

Soil is alive.A single teaspoon of fertile soil can host over a billion microorganisms — bacteria, fungi, and archaea that drive decomposition, nutrient cycling, and nitrogen fixation.This invisible ecosystem, the soil microbiome, is now at the heart of sustainable agriculture.For wheat farmers, understanding and managing this “underground life” is as crucial as choosing the right …

Satellite Data and Cereal Farming: Monitoring Sustainability from Space

by Ilaria ZappitelliWheat Production 5 November 2025Comments are Disabled

Observing a wheat field from space is no longer science fiction.In recent years, satellites have transformed how farmers and policymakers track cereal systems.Thanks to the EU’s Copernicus program, it is now possible to measure crop health, water use, potential yields, and even greenhouse gas emissions from wheat fields in real time. Copernicus: Watching Every Field …

Precision Agriculture and Cereals: What Really Changes? (Updated Version)

by Ilaria ZappitelliGreen Policies 5 November 20255 November 2025Comments are Disabled

For centuries, wheat was grown “by eye.”Today, fields have become connected ecosystems filled with sensors, drones, and algorithms collecting real-time data.This is the era of precision agriculture, which enhances — rather than replaces — the farmer’s expertise through digital tools and scientific insight. From Guesswork to Smart Fields Precision farming optimizes inputs — water, fertilizer, …

Green Public Procurement and Short Wheat Supply Chains: The Role of Local Grain in Public Canteens

by Ilaria ZappitelliGreen Policies 5 November 20255 November 2025Comments are Disabled

Eating local is a political act.Behind every meal served in a school or hospital canteen lies a choice: whether to buy cheap products from long, anonymous supply chains or to invest in sustainable, local production.That is the purpose of Green Public Procurement (GPP) — a policy that allows public institutions to steer demand toward low-impact, …

Italy’s Wheat and the National Biodiversity Strategy 2030

by Ilaria ZappitelliGreen Policies 5 November 2025Comments are Disabled

The National Biodiversity Strategy 2030 (SNB) is Italy’s main framework for implementing the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, a core pillar of the European Green Deal.Its goal is to halt biodiversity loss and restore natural and agricultural ecosystems, recognizing that cereal fields are also living ecosystems hosting genetic, microbial, and faunal diversity. Agricultural Biodiversity as a …

Nitrates, Emissions and Fertilizers: The Regulatory Challenge of 2030

by Ilaria ZappitelliGreen Policies 4 November 20254 November 2025Comments are Disabled

Fertilizer management and nitrogen emissions are now central to Europe’s environmental policy.Although agriculture accounts for only about 10% of total EU greenhouse gas emissions, it is the main source of nitrous oxide (N₂O) — a gas nearly 300 times more potent than CO₂.Cereal crops, including wheat, rely heavily on nitrogen inputs, but how this nutrient …