Protest of the agricultural world: which agriculture do we want?

The agricultural world is in turmoil these days. Some of the themes of the protest such as - low pay for farmers and equally low value of the product, excess of bureaucracy - are absolutely acceptable. Others that go in the opposite direction to the fight against climate change do not agree with us at all, since for now forty years (not long...) we have been trying to combine agriculture that recognizes the right value to the producer, the health of the territory and of those

Below is the speech of the president of the El Tamiso Cooperative Franco Zecchinato, in the internal dialogue of a WhatsApp group created on the subject.

“I was born and raised in the small agriculture of the Paduan 'countryside', after agricultural school, many years ago (now I'm 68), with the intention of re-embracing my cultural dimension, already undermined by the first community policies, such as the culling of our dairy cows, there were 3 - 4, I embraced organic agriculture and cooperation between producers and citizens. For almost 40 years I have been president of a well-known Paduan Agrobiological Cooperative and I am proud of it, although fortunately continuing to produce organic vegetables and cereals on my 4 ha. I live in a rural area and I know very well the problems that everyone is reporting: the harmful role of Professional Organizations (Colretti in the lead, with all its Ferraresi Reclamations, its Agrarian Consortia snatched from Federconsorzi, its Agritalia, its gradual conquest of certain biological and biodynamic organizations, its incestuous relationships with Italian agro-industry and the Ministry for Agriculture, etc. etc.); the increase in bureaucratic and production costs and new taxation, the total inadequacy of “politics” in regulate commercial supply chain relationships. And this is the last point that I agree with the protests: commercial and agro-industrial lobbies are supported at the expense of production, and this is unforgivable for those who administer in the name of everyone. Incidentally, this is why we founded the cooperative 40 years ago, precisely to be “wholesalers” of ourselves, and fortunately it is still working properly, and it is an irreplaceable side for many small and medium-sized companies, which otherwise would have already been expelled from the market. On the other hand, what I cannot share is the lashing out against so-called 'green' policies, in this phase of the world in which environmental catastrophe is imminent. As far as agricultural, food and social sustainability is concerned, we have practiced it long before, and you will understand that today, in a situation in which environmental sensitivity is growing in public opinion, it is completely counterproductive to persist in defending ordinary intensive farming practices and not to calm down the use of pesticides, or to chase the production of subsidized energy, subverting the food production function of agriculture. Things that then, on closer inspection, are in the interest of those who sell technical means and production inputs outside the business cycle (feed, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.). So solidarity with the agricultural world, but not against environmental sustainability, not that one.” If everything were to be resolved with a process to reduce pesticides, once again it would be the defeat of citizens, including farmers, for the benefit of agribusiness, finance and large scale retail.

Insights:

“Farmers' protests and the European green deal: why they are wrong aims” Greenreport.it

“Industrial agriculture rebels against itself” The pages of Sonia Savioli”

White Mill Syndrome: the tractor protest seen from Brussels "by Davide Sabbadin