In 1973 he bought an abandoned monastery on 480 acres of untouched mountaintop land overlooking the Adriatic Sea and planted a crop of organic durum wheat.
It also takes a green stand: not only is the wheatorganic, it is certified by both Italian and US agencies, the bottles are entirely recycled and the company commits to buy renewable power.
In France, there are reports that bakeries need to be on alert for tainted wheat after an organic miller said he had imported and sold on more than six tonnes of potentially contaminated grain from Germany.