“We want to produce food, not debt.” This is the slogan, accompanied by the roar of moving tractors, repeated loudly by the farmers people from Irpinia who this morning took to the streets again in Avellino to communicate to civil society the hardship and difficulties of the entire agricultural world and ask for technical discussions with the institutions in order to present requests and probable solutions to get out of the crisis. Today’s, dedicated to the theme of income, is the first of the seven central thematic days conducted in the various Italian territories and also represents the first act of the alliance made by breeders, farmers, fishermen, laborers and citizens as part of the national campaign ” 99 days to save agriculture and fishing by reopening hope”.
Irpinia farmers demonstrate in front of the Chamber of Commerce
In Avellino, the demonstration for the right to business income, wages and fair food for citizens, which saw the participation of associations, local administrators and representatives of the Church alongside direct farmers, began in Piazza della Libertà where the procession set off towards Piazza Duomo, headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce, with the aim of delivering to the organization a document, the same one that will also be submitted to Undersecretary Patrizio La Pietra.
Giving support to the demonstrators was the Bishop of Ariano Irpino, Sergio Melillo, who stated: “I believe that it is my duty and task to be present here today. The Church, expert in humanity, must have greater and particular attention towards the territories who experience difficulties such as those linked to the world of agriculture. In Ariano Irpino the issue of the crisis in the agricultural sector is deeply felt because it concerns a large part of the community and the future of the territory as well as the quality of the products we produce and the income linked to work and to the sacrifice of farmers and breeders”.
Also present at the procession was the mayor of Taurasi, Antonio Tranfaglia: “Today the farmers took to the streets not to strike but to make an appeal to be heard. The hope is that their requests will be discussed and accepted because continuing with all these problems is not it’s simple. Costs have increased and carrying on the activities, especially the smaller ones, has become challenging. We are able to produce excellent wines and food but we need that margin that allows us to keep the businesses alive.” The mayor of Villamaina, Nicola Trunfio, was also alongside the protesting farmers: “I am in the square first of all as a citizen, I think it is our duty to support the demonstrators, who are protesting legitimately and in a civil manner. An attitude that testifies to our education and tradition. I think this is the right moment to bring attention to the disparity between the prices of raw materials, in the case of high quality Irpinia, and the inequality that occurs in the subsequent steps towards wholesale and retail. Greater compensation should be given, in percentage terms, to farmers who do not ask for subsidies but for real recognition of their work”.
“Any initiative that wants to address the crisis in the agri-food sector must be based on the priority of restoring value to profitability”
“Made in Italy – we read in the document presented to the Chamber of Commerce – no longer has guarantees of relationship and connection with the territories but, becoming the result of commercial and industrial strategies that consider food only a commodity, empties its characteristics to flood markets for products of dubious quality”. “Made in Italy becomes a largely counterfeitable label, useful only to confer a competitive advantage for speculative marketing strategies. This epochal transformation, in addition to major environmental problems, food insecurity and the right to food for citizens , weighs unbearably on the working and living conditions and on the survival of agricultural, fishing and artisan productive enterprises, on the condition of workers in the supply chains, on the stability of our rural areas which are becoming depopulated”.
“In short, it undermines the general interests of the country and its communities, forcing us to incur enormous social and economic costs due to the abandonment of land care activities, the economic crisis of companies, the loss of jobs. For this reason, any initiative, whether of structural reform and of urgency and emergency that seeks to address the crisis in the agri-food sector can only be based on the priority of restoring value to the profitability of production sectors undermined by deep crises which see economic margins eroding”.
“In general, the difficulties of all small and medium-sized production companies, artisans, family and non-family ones are growing, often forced to produce below cost and at a loss both due to the dramatic increase in costs and to the strategy of the commercial distribution platforms that they lead a process that imposes prices on the field and on the boat well below the corporate giants by leveraging the invasion of imported products at rock-bottom prices” we read further in the document.
Tags: Companies collapse proceeds compensate cost production
