The current protest by farmers in Sardinia opens a Pandora’s box on the supply chain Italian milk sheep and goat, ‘
from feed to fork
‘. A supply chain plagued by a short-sighted strategy that has fueled private speculation under the indifference of politics. It is time to explore this issue so that ConsumAtors, the true masters of the market, can open their eyes and do their part to contribute to the common good.
Sheep and goat production, Europe and Turkey
The EU Sheepnet project
(‘
Sharing Expertise and Experience toward sheep Productivity through NETworking
‘), in 2017, aspires to ”
Sharing expertise and experience on sheep productivity through the establishment of an international working network
‘. There are seven countries involved in the EU-France, Ireland, Italy, UK, Romania, Spain (with conspicuous absence of Greece)-as well as Turkey. (1)
Sheep milk production in these countries is historic and significant. 85 million sheep are raised in the European Union by 830,000 operators, plus 31 million in Turkey alone at the 127,000 farms surveyed. In Europe, however, we learn from project records, ‘
The number of farmers has been reduced by 50 percent since 2000
‘ e ‘
the current decline of the industry is seen as a danger to the sustainable development of areas generally considered less-favored
‘. In order to strengthen the sheep sector, researchers consider it essential to increase animal productivity under the banner of sustainability and animal welfare. That is, increase meat production (number of lambs raised per animal started for breeding) and milk production (number of sheep in production per ewe started for breeding).
The run-up to productivity however, neither coincides with animal welfare and ecosystem nor with product quality. In the cattle sector, dairy cows, between genetics and push feeding, have exceeded 50 liters/day in recent decades with a drastic reduction in life expectancy (from 16 to 4 years). The ‘dictatorship of numbers’ has prevailed over the nutraceutical quality of foods,
sine cura
of the impact on ecosystem and biodiversity
Of monocultures imposed by demand for ‘performance’ feeds, including GMOs
, at low price . Then came the collapse in demand and prices, leading up to the global milk crisis. But the lesson was apparently not enough.
Italy-Greece, ‘
one face one race
‘?
Greece and Italy
share the culture of sheep herding. But their productions have quite different impacts on their respective economies. According to data from the
American Dairy Science
Association
, the sheep and goat sector in Greece is worth 9.4 percent of Total Agricultural Output (TAO ), with the highest specialization in the sheep and goat dairy sector. Average Greek sheep milk prices over the past decade have been high (€0.951/l) and constant. With a break-even point estimated at € 0.85/l for milk from intensive farms (Chios area) and € 1.14/l for extensive farms (transhumant groups).
I
n
Italy, sheep’s milk
contributes 0.7 percent to the TAO. (2) Dairy sheep account for 75 percent of the Italian sheep population, with semi-extensive farming using mainly natural pastures for feeding. Grazing is seasonal and varies with location and altitude. The number of dairy sheep has gradually declined over the past decade (-1.15 percent per year), plummeting (-0.5 million head) in 2015 due to a severe blue tongue epidemic. During the same period, sheep milk production decreased by only 0.6 percent/year, but achieved the lowest yield (85 l/head) among the FGIS countries (France, Greece, Italy, Spain).
The dairy sheep population
in Italy is concentrated in Sardinia (21.8 percent) and Sicily (11.3 percent), and in the central regions (Tuscany, Umbria, Marche, Latium and Abruzzo, for a total of 21.8 percent). The breeds used are mainly Sarda (80%, 201 liters of milk per ewe), Comisana (13%,159 liters), Valle del Belice (3%, 163 l), Massese (4%, 129 l) in Tuscany. The main income of Italian sheep farms comes from milk (72 percent), followed by sales of milk or light lambs (21 percent) and subsidies (7 percent). The main component of costs is related to agricultural labor (38 percent), followed by variable costs (29 percent), 77 percent of which are food costs. (3)
The price of Italian sheep’s milk has fluctuated significantly, from €1.20/l in 2013 to the current abyss of €0.60 (going through €0.85 in 2014, €1.05 in 2016, €0.70 in 2017). Against an estimated break-even point of 0.95 €/l. (4) Of the milk destined for the dairy industry (71 percent of the total), 30 percent is absorbed by the production of Pecorino Romano PDO, the first sheep’s milk cheese produced in Italy and leader In the international sheep’s cheese market.
Pastoralism in Italy, glorious legend and tragic reality. A crisis foretold
The current crisis of sheep farms
sheep in Sardinia, in the humble opinion of the writers, is the predictable effect of a short-sighted strategy, inspired by Coldiretti and focused by European policies reflected in EU
Sheepnet
. Extensive farming practices have been converted to semi-extensive, with sheepfold housing and inevitable increase in variable costs(feed), farm expansion, increased dependence on subsidies. The milk obtained at the barn, as is obvious, has quite different qualities from that of pasture-raised animals, but consumAtors are not allowed to know how the sheep at the origin of the various cheeses were raised. Blessed transparency (sic!).
Già in 2010 the crisis of pastoralism had emerged, with reports of many farms ‘slipping’ gently into intensive livestock farming without any planning.à , ‘Putting themselves in a form of dependence toward dairy companies‘. Little money but right away, was this the way to go? The price of milk at that time was € 0.65/l, the same as 28 years earlier (1,200 lira, in 1982). Dante’s circles, in the years to follow:
– 2012
–
201
4
, surge in the price of Pecorino Romano DOP, thanks to the growth of exports (+7.4 percent in 2012, +10.5 percent in 2013). The milk price, while peaking in 2013 (€1.20), does not follow the
performance
of cheese (at least for Sardinian producers). Instead, production costs increased (feed +4%, energy products +9.7%, wages). The average cost of producing a liter of milk (including cow’s milk) in Europe, according to the
Milk Production Cost
, has a cost of € 0.45, (5)
– 2015-2017, gradual decline in the price of Pecorino Romano (from € 9.23/kg down to € 5.10). Market stalls in 2017, with unsold forms and stop to milk purchases, collapse of its purchase price to € 0.60.(6) The average cost to produce one liter of sheep milk, in 2017, is estimated at € 1.12/l. The Solidarity Pecorino Dop experiment is promoted, with the ephemeral commitment of dairy industries to buy milk at a fair price, for a trial supply of up to € 150 thousand.
Local politics
picks up signs of unease, participating in peaceful protests
Unfortunately, devoid of feedback. The price of Pecorino Romano remains the needle in the Sardinian dairy production balance, and the region is not fulfilling its promises to allocate regional finances to the sector. Coldiretti Sardegna proposes that the region adjust raw material quotations to those of the finished product. The region responds that it will be
Ã
Oilos
(Sardinian Sheep’s Milk Interprofessional Organization) to work in this direction, but Oilos itself shrugs off empty promises,
– 2018
-2019
, the price of Pecorino Romano rises again to €8.50/kg. Agricultural organizations are demanding adjustments in raw material purchase prices, to no avail. In Sardinia it’s the breakup. 14 thousand farms, 37 conferring cooperatives, 35 thousand employees, 100 thousand workers in related industries. Selling milk at €0.60, compared to €1.20, means a dry loss of €228 million for the circulating economy in the region. (7) But the
Big
of production and distribution, on the peninsula, do not express empathy.
Sardinia 2019, the
protest. Reasons and possible solutions
At the price range and the lack of strategic vision is compounded by an additional problem, the indiscriminate import of milk from abroad. The use of foreign milk
è
in fact strictly prohibited in PDO production only.
, while it is possible to use Greek or Turkish milk in any other dairy product without even informing consumers of this. (8) The wide availability of the
Ã
of foreign raw material at inevitably more advantageous prices, if only because of lower labor-power costs, triggers perverse speculation whose victims are always the farmers.
The mechanism of speculation is simple, the processor, expecting the price drop to make purchases, can fill the warehouses. The price is slowly rising again, partly due to the gradual depletion of stocks by dairies and cooperatives. At the signal to rise again, when cooperatives and small industries are ready to sell, speculators arrive with stocks bought at low prices, put them on the market underpriced, and the rise stops. Before plummeting, as supply exploded and cheese devalued below. At this point, those who have to empty their cellars are forced to sell out, but the market is at a standstill. And the broker, money in hand, ready to ‘free’ the breeder from his problem, take it or leave it. A dynamic not unlike those affecting other sectors (ex. cereals, legumes, hazelnuts).
The pot is full
and it is unlikely that the dairy industry and distribution-when even cooperatively organized and/or ‘socially responsible’ (at least in words)-can guarantee a long-term solution to safeguard the national sheep supply chain. While waiting for news on the remedies promised by the policy, it is proposed to reflect on some opportunities:
A)
reports
re
value
on farms by restoring extensiverather than semi-extensive farming practices with stabling. Barn milk has nothing to do with pasture milk, even from a nutraceutical point of view. (9) Consumers must be able to know the farming and feeding practices from which products are derived, albeit through voluntary label information,
B)
remunera
re
equitably to farmers. With a premium to those who raise the animals on pasture-the true herders-and an additional premium to those certified organic, who also offer additional guarantees on the animal welfare front. (10) Voluntary commitments are needed from industry and GDO, evidence of which should be reported on the label. In order for consumAtors to truly execute responsible choices. of purchase. Maybe even through Consumer Branding (MDC)., whose pecorino cheese could also be promoted abroad as an international solidarity initiative,
C) introduce the origin mandatory raw materials, at least in relation to primary ingredients (those that represent 50 percent or more of the finished product) on all labels of foods produced and marketed in the European Union. In addition to the location of the production plant, which in turn expresses where the value was realized. Therefore, the European citizens’ initiative should be followed up as soon as possible. #EatORIGINal! Unmask your food.
Producer organizations
and the
deadbeat consortiums that are supposed to protect the entire production chain must then seek outlets in new markets. Invest in export by referring to professionals instead of the clientele of friends parked on luxurious chairs. With the support of the web and social media, now more indispensable than ever.
Unicità and typicityà of a milk are characteristics that pertain to the propertiesà Of the pasture that the animal consumes. It is precisely the pasture that determinationre and add the primary characters of a product, transferring to it distinctive and proper elements of an area, while respecting the ecosystem. Shifting to an intensive or semi-intensive model, in addition to losing the distinctive value associated with land and tradition, increases management costs (feed and wages especially, as well as energy). But even today, the Region of Sardinia recommends improving the prolificacy rate.à and supplement nutrition ‘random and spontaneous grazing‘ preferring supplements with Maize Grain Blend and FES (soybean extract meal).
Sardinian milk
could be a winning example of a thousand-year-old rural tradition for the entire Italian food sector. Instead, it reflects more than a decade of inertia, planning and policy. The only ones able to respond resiliently to a demand for milk that fluctuates significantly in price and volume are the producers, who today protest the exploitation and abuse of a supply chain that has subjugated them. After deluding them, with the complicity of their own representatives, by proposing a model that has already failed in the cattle sector. It is time to bring back value and transparency, to get ConsumAtors their deserved rewards.
Dario Dongo and Guido Cortese
Notes
(1) Italy, represented by Agris (Agency for Agricultural Research of the Region of Sardinia), contributes to the
EU SheepNet
by contributing
know-how
On milk production. With the technical and scientific support of the Sardinian Regional Agency, the Regional Breeders Association of Sardinia (Aras), the InterProvincial Breeders Associations (Apa), the National Pastoral Association, and the Italian Society of Sheep and Goat Pathology and Breeding. Involving breeders, enterprises and service companies operating in the Italian sheep supply chain
(2) ISTAT data, 2017
(3) Cf. Pulina, M. J. Milán, M. P. LavÃn, A. Theodoridis, E. Morin, J. Capote, D. L. Thomas, A. H. D. Francesconi, and G. Caja, ‘
Current production trends, farm structures, and economics of the dairy sheep and goat sectors.
‘.
Dairy Sci. 101:1-15 (2018). https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2017-14015
(4) Source ISTAT/ISMEA,
(5) Study commissioned by the EMB (European Milk Board) to the German company Bal (Büro für Agrarsoziologie und Landwirtschaft, Office of Agricultural Sociology and Agriculture) and elaborated on the basis of market surveys conducted during 2013-2017 in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, and the Netherlands
(6) In 2016, Coldiretti tried to defend Sardinian farmers, obtaining for a few months an increase to €0.85 in the price of milk that had meanwhile fallen to €0.50.
On the initiative of the mayor-shepherd of Ollolai, the ‘The Base‘ movement was born, a body that should define an interprofessional agreement (between agricultural associations, cooperativesand industries) on price and minimum quotas. Reaching an agreement on the price of sheep’s milk is even taken as a condition for allocating €14 million for the needy in Sardinia, in the 2017 Regional Stability Law
(7) Estimate made based on regional production capacity of 380 million liters
(8) The obligation to indicate the origin of milk used in dairy products has in fact lapsed due to the blatant illegality of the ministerial decree signed by Paolo Gentiloni and Carlo Calenda. See previous articles
https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/decreti-origine-ultimo-atto
,
https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/sede-stabilimento-decreto-inapplicabile-per-il-tribunale-di-roma
. And in any case, this obligation has never been applicable to products destined for foreign markets (see. https://www.foodagriculturerequirements.com/approfondimenti_1/origine-del-latte-in-etichetta-il-decreto-in-gazzetta-ufficiale_1). The only solution is to introduce this duty at the European level, as has been pointed out repeatedly (most recently on
https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/origine-dal-fumo-negli-occhi-all-azione-in-ue-la-via-da-seguire
)
(9) A clinical study published in the British Journal of Nutrition shows how regular consumption of cheese from sheep raised on pasture in Sardinia can reduce blood cholesterol levels in hypercholesterolemic adults. Thanks to the natural presence of CLA, derived precisely from feeding animals according to nature. Cf. ‘Sheep cheese naturally enriched in α-linolenic, conjugated linoleic and vaccenic acids improves the lipid profile and reduces anandamide in the plasma of hypercholesterolaemic subjects‘ (2012). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114512003224. However, no one had the foresight to pursue the studies and submit a special scientific dossier to Efsa, with the aim of promoting the prodigious health virtues of these products on the label (
health claim
)
(10) On organic livestock farming, nutrition and animal welfare, see also the previous article
https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/progresso/carne-biologica-abc-vs-fake-news-su-la-stampa
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Computer scientist and professional beekeeper. A former conscientious objector, he served and then volunteered in a canteen for the homeless in Turin. He deals with the right to food, food policy, food sovereignty and biodiversity. He founded the association of Metropolitan Pollinators with the aim of defending biodiversity through specific projects of social and environmental regeneration. He represents the Slow Food Community of Metropolitan Pollinators. He promoted the birth of the national network of urban beekeepers. He directs an independent agricultural market, collaborates and writes for Egalitè (Onlus Rome) which deals with defending the rights of disadvantaged people, and with the newspapers Great ItalianFood Trade, Qualiformaggio, L'apicoltore Italiano and minor magazines.
