On pesticides, the EU Commission closes the door to farmers

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On pesticides, the EU Commission closes the door in the face of European farmers. In the analysis supplement drawn up on the proposed regulation, there is no sign of acceptance of any of the requests from agricultural associations from all over Europe. Brussels limits itself to suggesting that, to reduce the use of pesticides, it will be enough to bring the share of organic crops to 25% of the total: if even this is not enough, says the Commission, it will be necessary to concentrate the cuts on “non-essential” sectors food safety, such as “wine or tomatoes”.

The Commission will make its analysis public in conjunction with next Monday’s Council of EU Agriculture Ministers. But a first draft was leaked and agricultural associations were literally speechless. «How can one fail to consider two strategic productions for the European economy as essential for the European economy such as the wine sector and the tomato – asks Luca Rigotti, wine sector coordinator of the Alliance of Cooperatives – the wine sector is a sector that creates an enormous induced, from machinery manufacturing to tourism, and has also proved to be a counter-cyclical sector during times of crisis. Reducing European production would then make no sense because wine consumption certainly would not decrease as a result, and this would open up the market to extra-EU productions that are not necessarily more sustainable than European ones».

As it is now written, the proposal for a regulation put forward by the Commission envisages, by 2030, a reduction in the use of pesticides by 50% on average, but in the specific case of Italy by more than 60%. Achieving these ambitious goals in such a short time and focusing everything on increasing the share of organic products is simply not realistic for farmers: «Today the organic market is in great difficulty – says Davide Vernocchi, fruit and vegetable coordinator of the Alliance – except for a few niche, organic fresh fruit and processed fruit do not register any increase in the share of consumption. Moreover, prices are leveling off those of conventional productions and many producers prefer to exit the market: with yields that are on average 30% lower, if it is no longer possible to raise the selling price, a farmer ends up making a loss».

In addition to falling back on bio, Vernocchi also contests the lack of a clear definition, in the Commission’s text, of the concept of “sensitive areas”, where the use of pesticides will not be possible: “If, for example, in addition to public parks, the lands crossed by the cycle paths, what we had foreseen in many of our studies emerges: that in Veneto the ban on chemicals would be extended to 90% of the territory and in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna to 80%».