A Garland

Organic Rice Mill – Rovasenda (Vercelli)

Biodiverse rice fields generate natural, traditional, healthy food: certified from seed to plate

The Piedmont savannah, at the foot of Monte Rosa

There's a corner of Piedmont they call "the savannah": the Baraggia, a windswept plateau of red earth, with snow-capped Monte Rosa on the horizon. A land so barren that ancient documents described it as "a land devoid of subsistence." Yet it is here, in Rovasenda, in the province of Vercelli, that the Stocchi family has been growing rice for three generations. The low temperatures that descend from the mountains yield small, slow-growing crops of extraordinary quality. It is in this harsh yet beautiful landscape that Una Garlanda was born: a rice mill where hard work has transformed, year after year, into one of the most studied natural farming practices in Italy.
 
 
 

The doubt that changed everything

Between 2001 and 2002, an uncomfortable question arose in the Stocchi family: what does it really mean to produce completely natural rice? Their first plot of land cultivated without chemicals led them to adopt organic farming, but the experience left them dissatisfied: a system that seemed superficial, incapable of rewarding genuine protection of nature and guaranteeing true food quality. It was their encounter with the UPM Association and Mario Pianesi that paved a different path, one of cultural enrichment and a deeper vision of the relationship between agriculture, health, and the environment. From that moment on, organic farming would no longer be a goal, but merely a starting point.
 
 

 
 

2003: Fulvio's observation

Great breakthroughs sometimes come from a plow that won't work. In 2003, Fulvio Stocchi noticed something in a patch of land where the clods hadn't been turned: a unique environment had been created, almost a spontaneous swamp, where rice grew healthy and thriving despite competition from terrestrial, amphibian, and aquatic plants. No invention, just patient observation of nature. From that insight—initially called the "swamp effect"—started years of experimentation, dozens of trials with grass mixtures, flooding and dry periods, and reduced tillage. A replicable and extremely effective agronomic technique was born, now known as "green mulching": the Stocchi Method, which allows rice to be grown without any chemicals or fertilizers, not even those permitted by organic regulations. A method that has become the subject of academic studies and a project funded by MIPAAF (Riso-Biosystems), which the Stocchis describe with disarming humility: "We didn't invent anything, we just observed the environment."
 
 
 

Keepers of Heroic Seeds

It was the most visionary customers, a magnificent exception in the market at the time, who demanded rice from ancient seeds. The Stocchis responded by recovering, in quantities of just a few grams, varieties abandoned for decades and preserved in the National Rice Institute's germplasm bank. With an experimental field and great tenacity, over 14 ancient varieties have sprouted again, and today Una Garlanda is the Official Custodian of eight varieties of conservation rice: Bertone, Originario Chinese, Lencino, Chinese Ostiglia, Nano, Dellarole, Precoce Gallina, and Precoce 6. These are their "heroic" rices: strong, rustic, and autonomous seeds, discovered over a hundred years ago, which overcome abandonment and honor the memory of their original breeders. Small-scale productions dried in the sun, a collection that is enriched with new flavors and colors every year.
 
 

 
 

Fifteen thousand plants and a tortoise

Around the Una Garlanda rice fields, a world has been reborn. Approximately 15.000 native plants—hedges, shrubs, and trees—have been planted along the embankments, arranged in rows for approximately 80 kilometers: ecological corridors where predators, animal species, and a rich diversity of wild herbs have reappeared, reconstituting the highest links in the food chain. The rice fields are home to carp from the "carpiculture" industry, ducks quack, and even the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis), which once spontaneously populated these environments, has returned. Crop rotations and intercropping sustain soil life even in the most depleted lands. The result is certified: no fertilizers, insecticides, or fungicides, neither chemical nor natural, and repeated multi-residue analyses by certified laboratories have never detected any residues. The paddy rice is then processed in the company's rice mill, dedicated exclusively to organic rice and powered 100% by green energy, eliminating any contamination, right down to the strictly plastic-free, paper-only packaging.
 
 
 

The fields that universities come to study

When a farm becomes a case study, it means something rare is happening. The Una Garlanda fields have been the subject of research by ISPRA, the University of Turin, the University of Milan, ARPA Piemonte, the Ministry of the Environment, and the National Rice Agency: the studies have highlighted higher levels of agrobiodiversity than crops grown using other methods. This is why the Stocchis like to say they are "more than organic... biodiverse": they adhere to the "Biodiversitas" collective label, which certifies the conservation of biodiversity and the evolutionary level of the farm's agroecosystem, and were the first company certified with the "Etichetta Trasparente Pianesiana" (Transparent Label Pianesiana), which traces the entire history of each product on the label, from seed to plate.
 
 
 

Three generations, with the clear eyes of those to come

Today, Una Garlanda is Manuele and Mara, Ugo and Elisabeth, with their "Grandparents" Fulvio and Nadia, who daily root the family to their beloved land, and little Linda, Maddalena, and Rosa, who represent the future with their clear eyes. Aware that not only the survival of a company is at stake, but that of all life on the planet, the Stocchis founded the "Polyculturae" Association with some friends to share with other rice growers the extraordinary experience of restoring the natural environment together. At Al Passo Food, you can bring the fruits of this journey to your table: each grain tells the story of the Baraggia, Monte Rosa, and a family who has chosen to observe nature rather than fight it.
 
 
 

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