Il organic market continues to grow with two-digit percentages. And while representing only 6% of agriculture, with about 75 operators active along the supply chain, it is asking for more public resources to support its role as a "sentinel" of the environment and public health.
In the 2013-2020 programming period, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) allocated 963 million euros to the sector in Italy, compared to 41,5 billion received from conventional agriculture: not even 3% of the total budget. The data, processed by the Research Office of the Chamber of Deputies, emerged today at the presentation to Montecitorio of the Change the Earth Report 2018 “The polluter, you don't pay!”, elaborated by FederBio with Isde-Medici for the environment, Legambiente, Lipu and Wwf. A coalition that has fielded a project with proposals aimed at politics for "stop the degradation of soils, waters and climate and to produce healthier food”. An objective to be pursued within the framework of the next CAP 2021-27, the organizers underlined, in light of the scarce financial resources to support the sector, but also of the higher economic costs of producing in a "clean" way. This means more work to produce without chemical synthesis fertilizers and herbicides, higher administrative and bureaucratic costs, additional costs to defend against accidental contamination and a smaller production in terms of volumes.
To produce with organic methods (for example, the additives allowed by EU standards are only 40, against 400 for the conventional method) the work affects 30% more on the gross salable production of the companies. Hence the need, according to the supporters of bio, to increase the cultivated areas from the current 15,4% to 40% of the total by 2027, at the end of the new CAP programming period. Among the "desired", also the ban on the use of the most harmful chemicals, such as glyphosate, removing it from all the production regulations that provide for it. Thus excluding farmers who use them from EU premiums.
“There are those who are worried and react badly because organic and biodynamic they are rapidly asserting themselves – said Maria Grazia Mammuccini, of FederBio – And this by gaining positions on the market and increasingly highlighting that the agricultural model based on the intensive use of synthetic chemistry and genetic engineering is now outdated. But this is the reality, and today the real innovation also in the scientific field is to follow the agroecological approach to cultivate in harmony with nature".
"We are working on the national law on the sector, which should soon arrive in the Chamber," recalled Susanna Cenni, vice-president of the Chamber's Agriculture Committee. Noting that "I never thought that organic is the panacea for all ills, but also the CAP, after all, sets itself the goal of producing with a lower environmental impact and less use of synthetic chemicals”.
“The growth of organic products in recent years – he added – is not the result of a fad, but of a general awareness. In any case, more research is needed to encourage agroecological practices”. But research costs money. “If the goal is to produce healthy food – summarized Filippo Gallinella, president of the Agriculture Commission – the reflection we are making is that the CAP takes this more into account”.
