From field to table. Italian farmers put forward five proposals to implement the objectives of the European strategy "From producer to consumer” or “Farm to Fork”, the ten-year plan of the European Commission which is an integral part of Green New Deal.
The coordination of Agr together, which brings together CIA-Italian Farmers, Confagricoltura, Copagri and the Alliance of Agri-food Cooperatives, spoke at the hearing in the Agriculture Committee of the Chamber and the occasion was used to outline what, according to agricultural producers, are the lines to follow.
1) First of all, we must avoid putting our hands on the resources of the CAP, which - it has been underlined - "are already consistently reduced compared to the previous programming".
2) Furthermore, the Coordination added, the risk of a quantitative decrease in Community agricultural production, which would have harmful consequences for agricultural producers and their cooperatives, and a possible reduction in consumption of high value-added Community products, which would benefit the cheaper non-European productions but less performing in terms of healthiness and environmental standards.
3) This requires a serious and careful impact assessment of the policies that the EU Commission intends to pursue and at the same time greater uniformity in the application of the provisions, which at the moment appear to be more binding for farmers than for the rest of the supply chain.
4) Not only. Agrinsieme, "sharing the need to provide greater transparency to the consumer", reiterated in the hearing that she rejects the use of "labelling systems that risk penalizing high-quality products such as those with geographical indications, which are also rich in important nutrients" .
5) Focusing ever more decisively on research and technological innovation, which "represent fundamental levers for the development of primary care and for the promotion of an ecological transition", remarked the coordination of Agrinsieme. Examples? The numerous applications of precision agriculture and the infinite possibilities offered by cisgenetics, a process by which genes can be artificially transferred between "relative" organisms that could be grown conventionally.
