Initiatives continue to free environment and people from thedrift effect
of
pesticides
. After the unanimous #NoPesticides motion in the House., on 3/26/19 we went down to Montecitorio alongside the Veneto citizens of the #ColtiviAMOfuturo Coordination, with 6,700 signatures.
CultivateFuture, stop the tragedy in Veneto
The hills of
Prosecco
record the national record for land consumption and use of
agrotoxics, in the Valdobbiadene
and beyond. Almost 12 kg per hectare, compared with the Italian average of 4.62 and the European average of 1.92. The production system in the Northeast follows a model that is antithetical to the principles ofsustainable agriculture which also, at least in theory, should animate European and national sector policies.
The ColtiviAMOfuturo Coordination, formed by associations in the GAMP area (Grappa, Asolo, Montello, Piave), affirms the need to apply the precautionary principle. To protect the health of citizens with respect to serious risks of which there is just enough knowledge to demand that dutiful measures be taken. And if already the plastic waste incinerated at the Pederobba cement plant had clouded the air, the storm has arrived. Agrotoxics in buckets, in an open-air gas chamber where the vine commands the lives. And the poisons percolate, into the waters and soils, drifting.
CultivateFuture, the petition
The Coordination’s petition aims to obtain the adoption of some simple and logical measures:
‘1) Limit the municipal cultivable area to monoculture, using the planning tools available to them, as is the case for building areas,
2) Open a discussion table on the Regulation of Pesticide Use, proposed to the municipalities by the Asolo Docg Consortium. Regulations that so many municipalities have already approved or are in the process of approving, without having discussed their contents with stakeholders other than the consortium itself, primarily the citizens. Regulation that currently does not sufficiently safeguard health and the environment (as there is no provision for, for example, the concrete implementation of controls),
3) Ensure that municipal technical offices verify full compliance with areas subject to environmental (SCI, SPA, ecological corridors), landscape and hydrogeological constraints. As is too often not the case, according to The Coordination Cultivate the Future,
4) Establish a moratorium in new planting approvals, with exemptions granted possible only for small planting quotas limited to small, longstanding farmers with proven ties to the land,
5) Require winegrowing consortia to share in the cost of controls and the cost of a general monitoring plan on the use of plant protection products. In accordance with the NAP and the ‘polluter pays’ principle.
Let’s cultivate the future, conference 26.03.19 at the Chamber
Sara Cunial
(M5S) introduced the discussion by denouncing the agricultural and industrial model present in
Veneto
, which helpless citizens pay for with their own health and that of their offspring. Change is possible
And indeed one must. With the goal of leaving our children a more dignified memory than previous generations to whom we owe PFAS, poisoned prosecco and devoured soils. (1)
Manlio Masucci (Navdanya International) moderated the meeting, highlighting the need to apply the International Convention on Human Rights to the Veneto case, and the principle of subsidiarity that is reflected in Europe with regard to human and animal health. The Veneto region continues to suffer environmental devastation, first because of irrational and wild urbanization (civil and industrial), now because of the agrotoxics that litter vine monocultures and everything around them.
The principle of subsidiarity must be reaffirmed; local communities must be able to decide the priorities for protecting their rights. And it is grotesque that the capacity for self-determination is lacking in one of the very regions where autonomy is most invoked. Where, on the other hand, in Rome’s view, the administrative judiciary has reached the paradox of asking the municipality of Malles, South Tyrol, to refund the 24 thousand euros invested in the #NoPesticides referendum. (2) The favorable outcome of which, by a plebiscite majority, was shamefully blocked by the TAR.
Andrea Lovisetto (ColtiviAMOfuturo Coordination) described the amenity of Veneto’s landscapes, but warned how their balance is being disturbed by the encroachment of vineyards, which in 2017 came to occupy 27 percent of the usable agricultural area (UAA). Exposing populations and the environment not only to huge amounts of pesticides, but also to the real threat to biodiversity.
The value of soil as a provider of ecosystem services, that is, ‘multiple benefits provided by ecosystems to humankind,’ is now recognized by many, at least in words. But regional and local conservation measures are approved with very serious delays, and their nearly 20m euros in funds reinforce vine monoculture in place of biodiversity. And municipal regulations on the sustainable use of pesticides are completely ineffective, with bland measures limited to restricted areas, completely lacking adequate controls.
Mauro Moretto
(ColtiviAMOfuturo Coordination), pointed out the tragic affair of the Pederobba cement plant, a historic tire incinerator that has been allowed to burn plastic waste as well for a few weeks now.
The committee asked for a retrospective epidemiological study, however, which was denied by both the local health authority and the municipality. The burning of plastic waste was thus authorized without even checking what damage the same plant has already caused to citizens over decades of burning tires. Irresponsibility and shame.
Environmental contamination and human health
Patrizia Gentilini – oncologist and hematologist, ISDE Italy (Physicians Association for the Environment) – spoke at the conference to highlight the need to advance scientific research on the dangers associated with the so-called cocktail effect. That is, synergistic and cumulative exposure to a plurality of pollution sources. Atmospheric emissions inevitably contaminate the food chain with dioxins, heavy metals and other contaminants, adding to the numerous pesticide active ingredients already detected by ISPRA in surface and groundwater. ”Like Pavesini dipped in poison,’ is the effective metaphor adopted by Patrizia Gentilini to describe the current situation and denounce the collusion of institutions on the ground with private individuals who poison the ecosystem.
‘The air we breathe is a cocktail’
of dangerous substances
. ISDE is ready to document the tens of thousands of deaths, more than 80,000 in Italy from just three pollutants: PM 2.5 (i.e., fine particulate matter, in atmospheric particulate matter), nitrogen dioxide and ozone.’
Air pollution causes premature mortality in the short and long term, bringing with it a multitude of misfortunes. Increased risks of premature births, malformations and miscarriages, acute leukemias, growth disorders, diabetes, neurogenerative diseases, and lung and bladder cancers.
Endocrine dis ruptors in pesticides alter reproductive function, steroid hormones and pituitary, sex hormones, leading to fertility problems. But public authorities-at the European, national and local levels-prefer the interests of the pesticide corporations, the Big 4 over those of the citizens they are supposed to represent. Therefore, no consideration is given to the problem represented whose detrimental effects are evident, among other things, in the drastic decline in the births in Italy even more than in Europe.
#NoPesticides, the role of citizens and consumAtors .
Pietro Bianco(European Consumers) highlights how citizens are also beginning to organize in courtrooms in the wake of the 11,000 complaints against Bayer. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights requires that every policy be referred to the paradigm of sustainable development. That is, if administrations have to choose between economic and environmental interests, the latter should be favored. Ecology and economics must advance in parallel, rather than in antithesis as is still often the case.
‘Ecology’ comes from the same Greek word from which ‘economy’ is derived. Both refer to the dimension of the home, the living environment. Instead, market logic tends to set them against each other, separating the sphere of nature from the social sphere, ecology from economics. Nature is defined as such when it is uninhabited; therefore, its protection boils down to conservation of ‘wild’ greenery. If economic development is conceived solely as commodity production, nature and self-supporting economic practices do not seem to have a productive function. On the contrary, nature’s economy is the first and fundamental livelihood factor on which any development model is based (Vandana Shiva, ‘The Common Good of the Earth‘).
Prosecco’s agronomic protocol contemplates 144 ‘phytosanitary’ products that contain substances that are toxic and very toxic to aquatic life, with persistent effects, found in fact in water in quantities that violate both European and national standards (ARPA Veneto data) (3). It is no coincidence that this region shows a higher incidence of cancer than the national average. And there is no shortage of alternatives, since pesticides can be replaced-or at any rate, drastically reduced-with sustainable agronomic practices and low-impact biological interventions.
Renato Bottiglia, coordinator of the ‘No Pesticides‘ group , recalled how the ‘NOPESTICIDES’ petition-which we urge people to sign and promote by following this link-has exceeded 30,000 signatures. The first goal is to get two indispensable rules introduced in the new National Action Plan (NAP) on pesticides:
- Mandatory safety distances. Spraying should never take place at distances of less than 50 m from houses and fields planted with organic production,
- duty of notice to neighbors, at least 72 hours before each treatment, with display of signs warning of the health hazards of pesticide exposure.
Paola Nugnes (M5S), co-signer of the land consumption bill now under discussion in the Senate, closed the conference on 3/26/19. Expressing the most serious obstacle, the difficulty of coordinating the national law with regional laws, which almost always achieve opposite goals to those stated. With the widespread cultural vice that economic development cannot be separated from the consumption of our environmental heritage. Neglecting the limits of the latter and the collective interest in its preservation.
#Égalité!
Dario Dongo and Giulia Torre
Notes
(1) PFAS pollution in Veneto came to light in 2013, when a CNR study found contamination by highly toxic substances in an area inhabited by more than 350,000 people. V. https://www.greenpeace.org/italy/attivati/lacqua-contaminata-non-ce-la-beviamo/
(2) 70% of eligible voters turned out to the polls, 75% of them voted in favor of including in the municipality’s bylaws a ban on pesticides as a ‘fundamental right of the individual and interest of the community, in accordance with the principle of sustainable development‘
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Graduated in law, master in European Food Law, she deals with agro-food, veterinary and agricultural legislation. She is a PhD in agrisystem.
