The Italian tomato is prized around the world, but its reputation has soured in recent years over reports of mafia infiltration, slave labour and toxic fires that poison water sources.
Southern Europe's biggest hydroponics farm is out to change all that, by growing pesticide-free crops in environmentally friendly greenhouses -- and getting bees to do the hard work.
Set among organic vineyards in Tuscany, Sfera Agricola was launched in 2015 by Luigi Galimberti as a response to repeated UN warnings that food production will need to increase sharply to feed the growing global population.
"The UN reminds us every year that by 2050 there will be 10 billion of us, and we'll need double the amount of water and double the land to produce food for everyone," Galimberti says.
"Along with the problems of a suddenly-changing climate, which is having an ever-greater impact on farming, it pushed me to imagine a more efficient, technological way of farming that produces more with less."
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using water fortified with mineral nutrients and oxygen instead.
Galimberti's farm produces a kilogram of tomatoes or lettuce using just two litres of water, compared to 75 in fields, he says. Of those two litres, over 90 percent is collected rainwater.
It relies on natural organisms to control pests and disease, and the few plants that need to be treated chemically are separated and their fruit destroyed.
