On the eve of the European elections of June 8 and 9, 2024, we publish the ebook ‘Agriculture is food. The necessary revolution’ with a collection of articles by lawyer Dario Dongo.
The compendium retraces the demands of the protesting farmers and the causes of the crisis, which concerns us all. The requests put forward in the ‘tractor protest’ are shared and supported by the founder of GIFT – Great Italian Food Trade, candidate for the European Parliament for the North-East with the Peace, Land, Dignity movement.
Here follows the introduction to the ebook written by Dario Dongo.
The causes of the ‘tractor protest’
‘In January 2024 farmers in Italy and other EU member countries have started a long series of protests and demonstrations to claim their rightful right to a decent income through a ban on selling their products below cost. They also request direct aid to face the ecological transition and reduce bureaucracy for family and peasant farms, which still represent 94.8% of the total at the EU level.
The farmers also oppose:
– to the deregulation of new GMOs (New Genomic Techniques, NGTs) and their patentability, which would worsen their dependence on the four global monopolists of pesticides (or phytopharmaceuticals) and seeds
– to the consumption of soils, agricultural and not, and their expropriation by private individuals to install photovoltaic and wind plants which should rather be installed offshore (7,500 km, in Italy)
– to free trade agreements that provide for the import into the EU of agricultural and food products coming from third countries, at zero tariff, without conditions of reciprocity
– the deprivation of the freedom to rely on over 2,500 freelance professionals and small agricultural assistance centers (CAA) in Italy to manage their company files.
From field to table, what will we eat?
The survival of farms Small and medium-sized, in Italy and Europe, are today at serious risk. But citizens and consumers do not yet seem to realize that the local agricultural crisis will have dramatic effects on our ability to buy foods that belong to our culture and centuries-old tradition. In addition to worsening the exodus from rural areas, abandonment of fields and thus the hydrogeological protection of ecosystems, the economic crisis.
The ebook Offers an account of the farmers' protests, an analysis of the causes of the ongoing crisis and the necessary solutions to end it. Without neglecting a fundamental need, to return to agriculture and civil societies the immense resources that the European Union and Member States intend to allocate to the war economy, whose sole beneficiaries are the arms industries.
#TerraNonGuerra, #PaceTerraDignità’
The ebook is downloadable at this link.
Professional journalist since January 1995, has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and magazines (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). Author of investigative journalism on food, she published the volume 'Reading labels to know what we eat'.
