The Jury of the Nonino Risit d’Âur Prize, created to highlight the merits of rural society, presided over by Ulderico Bernardi and comprising Ermanno Olmi and Giannola Nonino, has awarded the 29th Risit d’Âur (Golden Vine) Prize:

THE NONINO RISIT D’ÂUR PRIZE 2004 to the “Ancestral Tomato”

The Nonino Risit d’Âur Prize, now in its 29th year, reaffirms the reasons for its existence by confirming the thousand year old merits of the rural society and by standing up for whoever joins the struggle to safeguard treasured foods which some would see become anonymously uniform.

In regions of the countryside where there are still people who know how to use the good things that nature provides and who know how to offer high quality products without being greedy for huge profits, we want to seek them out in order to reward them and to demonstrate how greatly they benefit our society.

For this 2004 prize, as an example of the merits to which we refer, the Jury of the Nonino Risit d’Âur Prize in a symbolic and provocative manner, against the arrival of genetic modification, has chosen the ancestral tomato, a natural tomato in all its genunineness, which reminds us of the flavours and the smells of our childhood, which grows from a seed handed down through many generations, from mother to daughter, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, symbolically represented by Marianna’s tomato.

Marianna Cavallo from Percoto, as she has done for decades, every first cycle of the moon in February plants and sows the seeds which she selected from her garden the previous year, protecting them from every type of contamination, dedicating the care and love which is essential to obtain and preserve the very flavours and smells of which our new technology seeks to deprive us.

The Prize is awarded by Ulderico Bernardi

The Prize is received by Marianna Cavallo