In Italy, overbuilding causes two agricultural lands to disappear every day, endangering not only food production, but also the stability of the territory, at risk of instability and desertification and with artificial covers making the effects of climate change increasingly devastating.
This is Coldiretti’s photograph, based on an estimate based on Ispra data, which is worrying on the eve of World Environment Day which is celebrated on 5 June. According to the 2023 ISPRA report, 76.8 square kilometers of fertile soil have disappeared in the last year, at a rate of 2.4 square meters per second. A painful loss – notes Coldiretti – due to the birth of new buildings, commercial structures as well as installations such as ground-mounted photovoltaic panels. The region with the highest land consumption is Lombardy, followed by Veneto and Campania.
One billion of food is “burned” per year. And the removal of fertile land also becomes a serious problem from a food point of view, so much so that it is estimated that land consumption “burns” food worth a billion euros per year according to a Coldiretti estimate based on Crea-Ispra data .
Land consumption which is also driving farmers away from territories which are thus becoming increasingly at risk of collapse without the daily maintenance and care activities to which farmers who are true custodians of the environment are accustomed. The result is that over 9 out of 10 municipalities in Italy have part of the territory in areas at hydrogeological risk due to landslides and floods, aggravated by the effects of climate change, according to the latest Ispra report.
Stop wild photovoltaics. Also from this perspective, the stop to wild photovoltaics coming from the recent Agriculture Legislative Decree approved by the Government is important, which accepted Coldiretti’s requests to put a stop to what was a real regulatory wild west, with the installation of maxi systems over agricultural land pushed by speculative investment funds. As reiterated several times, Coldiretti is absolutely not against renewable sources, and the demonstration was also the strong participation in the Pnrr measure for photovoltaic systems on the roofs of stables and farmhouses which allow on the one hand the production of clean and sustainable energy, without affecting the availability of arable land and on the other to cut energy costs
The farmer is the first environmentalist. In recent years at a European level, an ideological and unrealistic vision has been fueled – underlines Coldiretti – which placed agriculture and the environment in opposition when, instead, it is precisely the presence of agricultural companies that guarantees constant protection of the territory from the dangers linked to instability as well as fires. Suffice it to remember that 55% of the Italian surface is managed and looked after by farmers, ‘sentinels’ available to the community. It is essential from this perspective to accelerate the approval of the law on land consumption which has been pending in Parliament for years and which – concludes Coldiretti – could provide Italy with a cutting-edge instrument, once again allowing our country to act as trailblazer in Europe, as has already happened for synthetic meat and the origin label.
