The biological reality in Italy and particularly in the Viterbo area

The present tendency to use and promote food products originating from Biological Agriculture has received an enormous impulse from the latest vicissitudes of food sophistication and from the "mad cow" phenomenon. In the past few years in Italy there has been a development, initially in a low-key manner, of the culture and use of biological foods. This demonstrates the country’s sensitivity and natural attention to the phenomenon even before other industrialized countries. Biological agriculture reduces the use of external agents by excluding fertilizers, pesticides, and chemical drugs. Therefore, the environment is protected and its natural balance respected, reducing the amount of pollution caused by the chemical substances normally used in traditional agriculture. Furthermore, the natural methods are able to eliminate the residual toxic chemical substances present in the foods, improving the nutritional and organoleptic characteristics of cultivated products. During the past years even in Italy, where, with respect to other European countries the development has been more contained, the growth of biological agriculture has reached a higher pace thanks to the increase in consumer demand. In this latest period, after the numerous food scandals, the scale of buying preferences regarding food products has changed; in fact, the Italians have shown a growing appreciation of products that are refined under the qualitative profile but at the same time can provide absolute guarantees in terms of the genuineness of health values. The introduction on the market of biological products has therefore segmented the food market, with the consumers showing a growing interest in biological foods. The big problem to overcome is still that of the price, which despite the contributions and facilitations given to the “Bio” farms, is still too high, even though the cause of the high price is due to the major care with which the biological foods are produced and marketed. Starting from a study of the phenomenon at EEC level, and subsequently at national level, the size and development of biological agriculture in the Viterbo area will be illustrated; a reality always attentive and committed to the agroindustrial sector. In order to show the considerable growth in progress in the biological market, certain elements and facts will be taken into consideration, such as: cultivated areas and areas in the process of converting, typology and number of biological farms and main production.