For now, Prime Minister Draghi has not been called into question, because there are two ministers who can give answers: Patuanelli of Agriculture and Cingolani of Ecological Transition. Environmental and organic producers associations have reopened the discussion on agricultural policy. After the declarations made the other day in Parliament, Cingolani's Ministry has become the main interlocutor for adequate space for the Italian agri-food sector. While that of Agriculture is asked to support the interests of organic agriculture, that of transition is urged to do justice to delays, omissions, negligence with respect to one long-term strategy. The agricultural supply chain is central to the intertwining of production, marketing and consumption.
In Brussels, negotiations are underway between the Commission, the Council and the Parliament for the launch of the new CAP regulation. The greatest concern is that aid is being considered for larger farms per hectare and head raised, neglecting those in inland and mountainous areas. Practically a structural imbalance to be answered with data and quality.
Italy, in this context, is among the countries that already has the most strong imbalances in the distribution of CAP aid: 80% goes to 20% of companies. In political diktats, the Cambiamo Agricoltura Association – protagonist of the appeal to the two Ministers – acquits President Ursula Von Der Leyen who has shown the ambition to align agriculture with the general trajectory of the "Green Deal". However, in the proposal for a regulation in progress in Brussels, there is no trace of the objectives of that trajectory, "among these the halving the use of pesticides in the field need antibiotics on farms, the reduction of fertilizers and the growth of principals for the sustainability of the rural space, made up of natural areas and companies and districts that cultivate organically.”
The substance of the clash is one grant of 387 billion euros in support that could end up in the coffers of multinationals: "taxpayers' money intended to support synthetic chemistry, large land ownership, monocultures and intensive farming."
Returning to Italy and the answers expected from the government, what sense would the green revolution outlined by Cingolani have without removing these dichotomies? In Italian organic companies there is discouragement, but determination. They push when writing the Recovery plan because they expect an active role from the new government both in the revision of the PNRR and its 'agriculture' chapter, and in the drafting of the National Strategic Plan. Golden opportunity that once again puts politics in front of complex decisions where nutrition, food spending, consumption, are not just media phenomena, but indicative of a country's level of satisfaction and maturity.
The policy "will have to administer European resources for over 40 billion euros to be spent by 2027, to be transformed into incentives to start the agroecological transition, strengthen the role of agriculture and livestock in the internal areas of the country, transform Italy into the homeland of food fair, healthy and sustainable”. Clearer than that to get busy?
