Italy, June 2024

 So I am glad I went. And we celebrated the life of my good friend and mentor, Alberto Ritieni. And his legacy. A broad and eclectic mix of scientific achievements and collaborators from agriculture, nutrition, mycotoxins, clinical research and, of course, functional foods. He has planted the seeds for a younger generation to carry this legacy forward (as it should be). The lesson to learn is to be gentle and generous...not to take ourselves too seriously.

Then I headed for Bologna to meet Enecta, a company I was introduced to by Alberto. They grow and supply seeds and have also set up a B2C selling CBD products online from their selected lines. Bologna with its cloistered tenements a small city. It's claim to fame is the oldest university in the world with a rich tradition of medical and health research and training. It was set up by the church. Napoli, meanwhile, claims to have the oldest public university in the world, Federico II which turns 800 years this year. It was set up by the emperor. Bologna was built by traders and pharmacists and lawyers. There is a farmacia at every corner and a studio legale in every other building. But their most famous export is spaghetti bolognaise, which actually does not exist in Bologna...it's tagliatelle NOT spaghetti.

I find out that Italy was also big on tobacco spending the afternoon with one of the world's foremost tobacco agronomist, Luca. In his retirement, he has now turned his sights in hemp bringing his expertise to this sunrise industry. So, we discuss the seeds (enecterol and enectiliana) and him coming to South Africa to work with us. We discuss Kutsaga Research and the opportunities for fibre, building material, oils and biochar. One door closing and others opening. And it all started with one man inviting me to Napoli in 2008.