(ANSA) - Milan, October 2 - The Young Business division of
farmers' association Coldiretti on Friday presented the winners
of the 9th edition of its "Green Oscars" awards for innovation
in agriculture at the Milan expo world fair.
The contest awarded prizes in five categories, and winners
were chosen from fifteen finalists at Coldiretti's No Farmers,
No Party pavilion at Expo.
In the "Friendly Countryside" category, Federica Pascoli of
Puglia won the prize for combining cinema with her family's oil
mill business by bringing repurposing an abandoned theatre for
public use at the family business, creating an innovative
"agricinema" concept.
In the "Network" category, Gabriele Biscontini won for his
Borgo Brufa Spa Resort, the first "agro-wellness" spa in Italy,
in the heart of Umbria.
A smartphone app called iOlive, created by Pietro Barachini
and engineer Dario Gronchi, which allows users to trace and view
certifications for extra-virgin olive oil took the prize in the
"Business 2.Soil" category.
In the "Friendly Country" category, the prize went to the
only farmer left on the island of Torcello in the Venice Lagoon,
Paolo Andrich, for his artichoke cultivation business.
Enzo Marascio won the "WeGreen" category with his "meat of
the future" project, which created "meats" like steaks and
salami entirely from wheat flour and beans, and therefore free
of triglycerides, fat, and cholesterol.
Finalists for the prizes included a liquor made from
snails; a pig stall in Abruzzo that can be managed from home via
Internet; an "outer space seed saver" that recovered ancient
beans and grains threatened by extinction selected by Agrotec,
which works with supplying astronauts; and a project in Molise
in which three women started a program for prisoner
rehabilitation through agricultural work.