The experimental TEA rice field, hosted at the Cascina Erbatici company in Mezzana Bigli (PV), was completely destroyed last night by unknown persons who, after tampering with the surveillance camera and tearing up the protective metal mesh, cut and uprooted the seedlings. The news was given by the regional councilor for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Alessandro Beduschi.
TEA (Assisted Evolution Techniques), thanks to genetic improvement (non-GMO), make it possible to obtain plants that are more resistant to diseases and more suitable to deal with the effects of climate change, reducing the use of pesticides and pesticides and rationalizing their use. of water. Lombardy had started the first experimentation of these techniques by the University of Milan in Mezzana Bigli, to test the response of plants to the fungus responsible for the disease known as ‘brusone’.
“We do not talk – comments Beduschi – of vandalism. This is a criminal act, which compromises an experiment that we were the first in Italy to launch with a significant political effort and by combining the best scientific expertise on the subject. There are no comments to condemn the gesture of those who, thinking of destroying a small 28 square meter field, blocked years of studies that could finally be applied in concrete terms.”
“Having said that obviously this uncivilized gesture will not stop us – continues councilor Beduschi – it is clear that the relevant reports will be presented immediately so that the incident can be clarified”.
“A criminal, uncivilized and violent gesture – states Senator Luca De Carlo, president of the Senate Agriculture Commission – and a sign of profound ignorance, also the result of distorted propaganda. An act that however will not stop us and will not even stop the necessary scientific progress. We will relaunch with even greater strength because the challenge of feeding the nation and producing more and better will certainly not stop in the face of a few criminals.”
“We witness – adds Maria Pia Abbracchio, vice-rector of the University of Milan with responsibility for the coordination and promotion of research – to a regurgitation of obscurantist and anti-scientific violence that as a State University we have no intention of tolerating. This episode causes incalculable damage not only to the researcher involved, not only to her project, but to the entire scientific community and all citizens who are the primary stakeholders in the work carried out by our university. The work of our scientists, their goal of developing more sustainable cultivation for the benefit of all will resume and continue with even greater conviction and commitment.”
“The RIS8imo experimental field – conclude Vittoria Brambilla and Fabio Fornara, professors at the University of Milan and responsible for the research – had been developed with Assisted Evolution Techniques (TEA) at the State University of Milan, with the aim of contributing to reducing the use of fungicides, with a view to sustainable and quality agriculture, an innovation necessary for face the challenges of agriculture today and tomorrow. As public scientists we express shock and sadness at having suffered unjustified violence, the result of obscurantism and anti-scientific impulses.”
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