The mill of the Cooperativa Gino Girolomoni was tested and finally the dream of father Gino to preside over the entire supply chain to produce organic pasta was achieved. The company from the Marche region has totally entrusted itself to Ocrim for the design, testing and training of technicians and millers.

Yesterday’s Utopia Has Become Today’s Reality

It was one of the first experiences of organic farming in Italy. In the 1970s, not far from the small medieval village of Isola del Piano (PU, Italy), Gino Girolomoni was able to look beyond the industrial model that characterized that period and that contributed to the depopulation of the countryside. He believed in the value of the Earth, of Work, Sustainability and Health and, with the stubbornness and peasant wisdom that were his own, he became the pioneer of organic farming, convinced that organic farming was the starting point for rebuilding the rural world. Those who have been close to him have often heard him say “I don’t think organic farming will save the world, but I practice it so as not to be on the side of those who destroy the world”. His sons Samuele, Giovanni Battista, Maria and some very young people of the town decided to stay and devote themselves to organic and biodynamic farming, cultivating the lands that had been abandoned

It was a hard life choice, carried out with great effort. In those days organic wholemeal pasta was considered illegal, both because it was not admitted by law, and because the biological wording was considered misleading advertising and consumer fraud. A choice that has required 17 years of pasta appropriation, but in the end, the forward-thinking vision of dad Gino and a cultural model made of love for the land and respect for consumers have won. The facts proved him right and today the Cooperativa Gino Girolomoni is entity of over 300 associated farms in the supply chain, most of them concentrated in the Marche region and in the hill towns near Urbino, a territory where people grow, process and market different varieties of grains and cereals. They produce an organic pasta whose quality is recognized all over the world (80% export), but to complete the supply chain one piece was still missing: having its own mill. Gino used to say that sooner or later they would have done it. And that moment has finally arrived: now there is the mill, tested on September 2nd with to the great satisfaction of all the members. Giovanni Battista Girolomoni, in his speech at the Ocrim Open Day, stated: We are the first Italian cooperative of farmers to complete the agricultural supply chain, from seed to plate through the construction of mill completely dedicated to organic mill, located next to the pasta factory”. He concluded: “After forty years spent in the fields and becoming good at making pasta, we try our hand at a new profession, that of the millers”.

Ocrim, A Valuable Partner

The entire project has been entrusted to Ocrim which has created a 100 T/24h mill, particularly innovative and with a high level of automation that guarantees the traceability of all productions, thanks to the @mill package. The mill will allow the Cooperative to produce semolina made from organic grains and cereals, such as durum wheat, spelled, Senatore Cappelli, Graziella RA and others. The mill will give the possibility to start from a quality raw material, well cultivated, and to be able to choose the silos from which to draw in the preparation of the right blending of wheat to start to grind. An unquestionable added value that allows us to select the best semolina for making pasta, with continuous feedback between the analysis laboratory, the mill and the pasta factory, thus obtaining a semolina and, therefore, a tailor-made pasta. Ocrim also dealt with all the training aspects that it carried out in part at the Ocrim Milling Technology School in Cremona and partly directly on site, training technicians and young millers. The bond that unites the two companies is very strong, both have always looked in the same direction, have great respect for tradition and trust in the benefits of technology. Alberto Antolini, Ocrim CEO, commented the recent testing in his speech at “Wheat, flour, and…” event: “For me and for the whole Ocrim family it is an honor to have taken part in the realization of the dream: the mill desired by Gino Girolomoni, a man who had gratitude and love for the Earth, the Work, the Family. His children are concrete heirs of these values and I’m happy to have contributed to the fulfillment of this important undertaking “.