After decades of disinterest and hostility, Coldiretti has decided to conquer the organic farming and agribusiness sector as well. In the ways that characterize the ‘yellow flags’ power system. Prevarications, power and resource sharing, conflicts of interest. #CleanSpades.
1) Coldiretti and organic farming, worlds apart
Coldiretti has always taken sides against the principles underlying the organic supply chain and the positions expressed by its representatives. Some current examples:
– Coldiretti is successfully engaged in boycotting theSustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation (SUR) proposal to achieve the drastic reduction of pesticide use in the EU (1,2),
– yellow flags are engaged in countering the Nature Restoration Law to restore degraded natural habitats and restore biodiversity (3,4),
– Palazzo Rospigliosi promotes the deregulation of new GMOs and their open field testing without prior risk assessment nor traceability nor labeling (5,6).
1) Coldiretti’s assault on Federbio, first attempt.
In July 2000, Coldiretti had established ANAGRIBIOS, the National Association of Organic Agriculture. An acronym that was completely inactive until 2019, when the first news of European funding specifically dedicated to the organic sector arrived at Palazzo Rospigliosi. And that is when Coldiretti decided to approach Federbio (7) – the Italian Federation of Organic and Biodynamic Organizations – with the goal of colonizing the organic sector.
On June 27, 2019 , Coldiretti entered Federbio head-on, on the very day of the latter’s elective assembly, trying to impose the presidency of its environment manager Stefano Masini. But Federbio’s membership base-which has always regarded Coldiretti as ‘other than itself’-did not even elect a yellow flag representative. Much to the satisfaction of Paolo Carnemolla, outgoing president of Federbio.
Instead, the chairmanship of Federbio was given to Maria Grazia Mammuccini, who was then invisible to Coldiretti and a member but not sponsored by CIA. Vice presidents Matteo Bartolini (CIA, former president of CEJA, European Conseil Young Farmers), Andrea Bertoldi and Carlo Triarico. Also elected to the bureau are Rossella Bartolozzi, Claudia Bastia (Paolo Carnemolla’s longtime personal assistant), farmers Michele Monetta and Enrico Casarotti.
2) Coldiretti Bio, Demeter
On Dec. 14, 2020 , Coldiretti, in an ‘assembly’ with very few members, re-founded the ANAGRIBIOS association by renaming it the ‘Association of Coldiretti Organic and Biodynamic Enterprises – Coldiretti Bio‘. With the goal of extending the conquest to the
biodynamic sector, another component of the Italian organic world. President of Coldiretti Bio is Maria Letizia Gardoni, president of Coldiretti Marche as well as a Coldiretti national councilor.
At that time it was about the huge EU organic funds and the supply chain call with million-dollar projects. Rumor has it that private meetings were held to finalize the construction and dividing of the bids between representatives of the organic and biodynamic sectors, all of whom are in Coldiretti’s camp.
Among the many winners in Coldiretti’s area of the debated V MASAF supply chain call is the ‘AmicoBio’ project, for 17.761 million euros, by Enrico Amico (founder of Coldiretti Bio and member of its national council, as well as president of Demeter Italia – the private certifying brand of biodynamics in Italy).
Rumors of possible deals that would have excluded other biodynamic operators from the calls for bids caused a storm at Demeter Italy, with Amico’s ouster as president and subsequent litigation in court. Biodynamic Association President Carlo Triarico is included in the Scientific Committee of Coldiretti Bio but immediately distances himself from it, trying in every way to save the autonomy of the biodynamic movement.
3) Federbio – Coldiretti, an informal agreement?
An informal agreement with President Maria Grazia Mammuccini, according to rumors, would lay the groundwork for Coldiretti’s conquest of FederBio. This agreement would have provided:
– the transfer of management of Federbio servizi S.r.l. to Federconsorzi 2, aka Consorzi Agrari d’Italia (CAI) S.p.A., which is expected to acquire its controlling stake. CAI S.p.A. is a network that produces more than 1 billion euros in annual revenues. The minority shareholder with extraordinary powers is Bonifiche Ferraresi S.p.A, Italy’s largest landowner with more than 7,000 hectares scattered among the provinces of Ferrara, Arezzo, Grosseto and Oristano, a 4.500 cattle in the Ferrara area and the control of SIS, Società Italiana Sementi (which has already been sanctioned by the Antitrust Authority for imposing on buyers of Senatore Capelli wheat seed an obligation to return the grain produced to constitute a monopoly, as well as for delaying or refusing to supply seed to growers who are not members of Coldiretti and for unjustifiably raising seed prices). (9)
The Agricultural Consortia of Emilia, Tyrrhenian, Central South, Adriatic and Northeast – which merged into the ‘Federconsorzi 2’ project at the high price of losing autonomy, mutualism and 21 million euros of real estate treasures (10) – are the largest dealers of GMO pesticides and feed on the Italian market. The technical structure established by FederBio for the organic sector would thus pass into the hands of the big players in conventional agriculture, pesticides and GMO feed,
– a term presidency of Maria Grazia Mammuccini, with early resignation in favor of Maria Letizia Gardoni, who is expected to take over the role during the term,
– At least two vice presidencies of Federbio at Coldiretti,
– Coldiretti’s control of the organic interprofession,
– the coordination of Federbio’s agricultural producers section in Coldiretti.
4) Federbio, membership base oppositions.
The organizations that make up Federbio’s producer section opposed the proposal to elect Maria Letizia Gardoni (Coldiretti) as their coordinator. Coldiretti could only have counted on his and Demeter’s Enrico Amico’s vote. President Mammuccini, noting that the vote would be unfavorable, therefore reportedly decided not to place that office on the ballot and to maintain the status quo ‘ad interim,’ on the grounds that electing someone else would result in a rupture with Coldiretti and endanger Federbio’s survival.
Federbio organic farmers, as a result, decided to withdraw their nominations and forgo the election of their representative. Organic farmers’ grassroots organizations had collided with FederBio’s leadership a few months earlier when FederBio-after agreeing to the federation’s endorsement of their candidate to represent Italy in the European parliament of IFOAM Organics Europe – had announced in the assembly a sudden change of course, in favor of an industry representative. Flaming email exchanges, threats of ‘retreat to the Aventine’ and blocking the press release for a couple of weeks.
5) Federbio, the conquest of Coldiretti.
On July 21, 2022, at the national assembly of Federbio, what Coldiretti had predicted would occur:
– Maria Grazia Mammuccini was being re-elected president by having Coldiretti no longer as an opponent, but as a great voter, (11)
– Maria Letizia Gardoni (Coldiretti) took the place of Matteo Bartolini (CIA) as vice president for the agricultural producers component,
– Marco Paravicini Crespi (national board member of Coldiretti Bio, as well as of Demeter Italia, since 2012 a partner in EcorNaturSì, which distributes biodynamic and organic products with 2022 sales of € 412 million and a less-than-stellar financial situation) was being appointed vice-president for the biodynamic component, under pressure from Coldiretti, in place of Carlo Triarico (president of the National Biodynamic Association).
Triarico declared at the meeting that he was withdrawing his candidacy due to pressure he had received to protect Federbio and keep the Biodynamic Association free from the onerous conditions imposed by Coldiretti.
6) Provisional return of accounts
On July 6, 2023, Federbio’s farmers’ assembly was held for the first time at Palazzo Rospigliosi, headquarters of national Coldiretti, rather than at the Bologna headquarters of the Organic Federation. Chief leader Vincenzo Gesmundo himself opened the congress, before turning the floor over to his Maria Letizia Gardoni to expound the new ‘manifesto of the future of organic’ and run the assembly. Thus:
– some historical organic organizations officially declared that they would not participate in the assembly, others did not show up directly. Most of the historical organic farmers’ organizations are reportedly considering exiting Federbio following its takeover by Coldiretti,
– CIA (Confederazione Italiana Agricoltori), for now, seems to accept the subordinate role in resource allocation by Coldiretti. The resources are substantial, since it involves the allocation of millions of euros from the NRP and EU funds for organic, as well as the management of Federbio services (see above, paragraph 3, first indent).
The inspection bodies have in turn exited FederBio. The majority of them (12 bodies that collectively perform inspections on more than 90 percent of Italian organic farms) have organized themselves into the autonomous AssoCertBio structure. Most recently, ATBio, the Association of Consulting Engineers and Inspectors, also came out. The only inspection bodies remaining in FederBio are ICEA (which has since also joined AssoCertBio) and Q-cert, which was acquired in 2019 by Bureau Veritas Italia.
7) Imperial designs and conflicts of interest.
The takeover of Federbio and Federbio services will allow Coldiretti to manage the central strategic structure for the future of organic in Italy, the organic interprofession. It is no coincidence that the recent Italian organic law gave the interprofessional organization representing at least one-third of the sector a number of extraordinary powers, binding even on non-members and therefore unconstitutional, in the opinion of the writer, as has already been denounced (12,13).
If no one has the courage to oppose the magic circle’s delusion of omnipotence, Coldiretti will become the ‘single voice’ for the Italian organic supply chain as well. In the most blatant of conflicts of interest on all issues where organic operators oppose the agricultural policies of the big agricultural unions (see above, paragraph 1). It should be remembered that agriculture is the first item in the EU budget with huge interests, not least those for the introduction in Italy of new GMOs (NBTs or NGTs) to which Coldiretti is very dedicated.
8) From bad to worse
FederBio services S.r.l. – strongly desired and chaired since its founding (2017) by Carnemolla – has never ‘broken through’ commercially, but neither has it provided dividends to members, even in the industry’s boom years. Since it was conceived as a lightweight structure that provides services to the biological enterprise system without relying on its own technical staff but merely brokering the services of external professionals. In a network logic that under Coldiretti’s rule could instead result in yet another speculation to the detriment of members. (14)
Director of Coldiretti Bio is Francesco Giardina, a former official of the Ministry of Agriculture. He was SINAB (National Information System on Organic Agriculture) coordinator at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and at the same time participated in the decision-making body of a private inspection body as a member of the federal executive of AIAB from June 2005 to January 2007. Hiring former public managers is after all part of Coldiretti’s magic circle strategies to foster interaction with the public administration, as we have seen. (15)
9) Federbio, other members and acolytes
Among the members of FederBio also includes Bologna Fiere-which organizes SANA, the organic fair now in its 35th edition, with the support of the Agency for the Promotion Abroad and Internationalization of Italian Businesses and the sponsorships of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Emilia-Romagna Region)-which grants FederBio significant annual financial support in exchange for the federation’s waiver of participation in other competing national fairs. Little will change for Bologna Fiere, save a mass defection from Federbio and SANA of brave operators who will instead organize elsewhere, perhaps in a dedicated sector of the majestic TuttoFood.
Where it cannot count on members, FederBio sets up little more than virtual organizations to brag about regional representation and increase its perceived clout.
One example is the member Toscana Bio, which FederBio has enlisted from among the farmers’ organizations but does not have a single farmer on its governing bodies.
President is Rossella Bartolozzi (CFO of distributor Probios), advisors Alessandra Alberti (agronomist at CIA Toscana), Antonio Massa (owner of the small brewery Valdarno Superiore, entirely conventional and not organic, as he admitted in the interview after the investiture) and Carlo Triarico. (16)
9) Interim Conclusions
The social base of the organizations that created and participate in FederBio does not appear to have been consulted on the ‘grand maneuvers’ by which Paolo Carnemolla and Maria Grazia Mammuccini intend to give the organic sector in Italy to Coldiretti.
This social base sees Coldiretti as a dangerous counterpart that advocates for exemption authorizations for pesticides banned in the EU, celebrates new GMOs, and obstructs the ‘Farm to Fork‘ strategy to reduce the burden of pesticides, fertilizers, and antibiotics on European agriculture.
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Laura Miraglia. Coldiretti/Filiera Italia in Brussels: “There is a risk that food production will collapse by 30 percent.” Euractiv. 10/27.22 https://tinyurl.com/349sxdzn
(2) Alessandra Mei. Regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides, SUR. The travails of EU reform. FT (Food Times). 20.12.22
(3) EU: stop to Nature Restoration saves 580 bn of Italian food. Coldiretti. 27.6.23. https://tinyurl.com/3nfav9mz
(4) Dario Dongo, Alessandra Mei. Nature Restoration Law, the European Parliament approves the proposal. FT (Food Times). 12.7.23
(5) EU: president Coldiretti Prandini, speed up on Tea and cisgenetics. Nova Agency. 6.6.23. https://tinyurl.com/2p8bhwvw
(6) New GMOs, NGTs. The European Commission’s deregulation proposal.. FT (Food Times). 4.7.23
(7) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Organic in the sprint, Coldiretti gets on board. FT (Food Times). 13.4.19
(8) SEE https://h2020-demeter.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/DEMETER_PilotBooklet_Italy.pdf
(9) Dario Dongo. Consorzi Agrari d’Italia, Bonifiche Ferraresi and Filiera Agricola Italiana SpA, the vase is full. FT (Food Times). 23.1.21
(10) Dario Dongo. Federconsorzi 2, 21 million burned at agricultural consortia in finance bonfire. #CleanSpades. FT (Food Times). 30.3.21
(11) Mammuccini re-elected as president of FederBio. Change the Earth. 21.7.22. https://tinyurl.com/2p8wbnjj
(12) Dario Dongo. Italian organic, Coldiretti’s tailor-made bill on Senate vote. #CleanSpades. FT (Food Times). 18.5.21
(13) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Italian organic law, more shadows than lights. Interview with Roberto Pinton. FT (Food Times). 7.3.22
(14) There is no shortage of examples of speculation by the Coldiretti system on its members. Some mentions in the articles:
– Germina Campus, Coldiretti’s holding company speculating on farmers. #CleanSpades. 13.6.21
– Campagna Amica, Coldiretti insists on cutting farmers. 28.12.22
(15) Dario Dongo. Public administration, loyalty to the state or to Coldiretti? #CleanSpades FT (Food Times). 27.6.21
(16) It was no better with the previous governing body, which was chaired by Alberto Bencistà (business consultant, former mayor and two-time regional councilor), Mimmo Tringale (journalist), Federico Chiesi (president of a communications and events company), Laura Lo Presti (collaborator with the Zero Waste Research Center in Capannori) and Rossella Bartolozzi
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
