If there is one area in which Italy ranks everyone, it is agriculture. Not so much for the quality, in many cases undisputed of our products, and not even for the recognized variety of our land and crops, but above all for sustainability. With 569 tons for every million euro produced, in fact, Italian agriculture emits 46% less greenhouse gas than the EU 28 average, and does much better than Spain (+25% compared to our country, at 715 tons), France (which pollutes almost double, 1.059 tons), Germany (+118% at 1.090 tons) and the United Kingdom (which almost triples the given, at 1.486 tons).
The data was calculated and disclosed through the "Italy in 10 selfies" dossier, an initiative promoted by the Symbola Foundation, Assocamerestero and Unioncamere and which for this specific part of the investigation also used Coldiretti data. Italy also has the lowest number of agri-food products with pesticide residues (0,48%), seven times lower than French products and almost 4 times the Spanish and German ones. With 64.210 organic producers, our country is the champion of the sector, followed by Spain (36.207) and France (32.264). Not only that: we are also sixth in the world for the size of organic surfaces (1,8 million hectares). And it is also thanks to these records that the added value per hectare in Italy is more than double the EU 28 average and that of Germany, France and Spain, and four times that of the United Kingdom. Results that are also due to young people: there are 55.331 agricultural businesses run by under 35s, since it places Italy at the top in Europe. Compared to the average, young people's farms have higher turnovers (+75%) and more jobs (+50%).
However, agriculture is not the only Italian record in the field of environmental protection. In fact, the dossier of the Symbola Foundation also identifies the one in the circular economy: with 307 tons of raw material for every million euros produced we are second among the large EU countries for efficient use of materials, behind the United Kingdom (236 t, an economy driven by finance) but ahead of France (326), Spain (360) and Germany (408). Italy is the European leader for the dematerialisation of the economy: for every kg of resource consumed it generates 4 euros of GDP, against an EU average of 2,24 euros and a figure for Germany of 2,3 euros.
Italy with 76,9% is the European country with the highest percentage of recycling out of all waste, more than double the EU average (36%) and better than France (53,6%), United Kingdom (43,6%), Germany (42,7%), Spain (36,1%). With 18,5% of secondary materials on total material consumption, Italy is the leader among the large European countries for the rate of circularity of the economy. A substitution of material which entails savings equal to 21 million tons of oil equivalent and 58 million tons of CO2.
