Italian available here. BORN IN ITALY Italians – a people of saints, poets, sailors, and … forerunners. Leonardo da Vinci, Antonio Meucci, Alessandro Volta (proudly my fellow citizen), Guglielmo Marconi, Alfonso Bialetti, Adriano Olivetti, you name it. The Italian people's imagination and creativity, as well as their power to transform ideas into tangible things, have consistently been widely recognized over the centuries. And food is no exception. Some examples?
The origins of Prosciutto, for example, date back to the Etruscans, when it was discovered that putting in salt the pig legs lengthened their preservation time. For the Parmigiano, we owe thanks to the ingenuity of some Emilian monks, who applied the curdling skills obtained in France to their needs to use the milk surplus from cows used in the fields. And what about the absolute symbol of Italian food, the tomato? After being imported from America in the 16th century, for many years, it was considered poisonous and used as a mere ornamental plant.
So, can we say that foodtech has Italian ancestry? Definitely, yes. Then, over centuries, something changed, as widely discussed in the article “Italian foodtech, how is it perceived abroad?” ONLY THE BRAVES Nowadays, Italy cannot certainly be considered at the top of global foodtech, especially if we look at the investments, as stated in our report “Agrifood-Tech Investments In Italy”, available for download here (both in English and Italian). Surely, Italy for global foodtech represents a kind of challenge; not by chance, so many plant-based brands love to repeat, “If we can sell in Italy, we can sell everywhere”. And I said all. Less diplomatically, we could say, “It’s nice to do foodtech in the Nordics or the UK, but come to Italy if you’re brave.”
“We’re on a mission from God'' is one of the most famous quotes from “The Blues Brothers”, but it could also aptly describe anyone working within the Italian foodtech ecosystem. Like the 99 (+1) people listed below.
Make it a foodtech family So, I declare myself the 100th most influential person in Italian foodtech. I invite everyone to unleash his/her creativity and contribute their own definition and adjectives/nouns to this designation. And do not forget to follow/connect on my social channel https://bit.ly/PlusTFC Have you enjoyed this article? Please feel free to comment and/or share it with your network.
Antonio Iannone