The People’s Campaign forPeasant Agriculture, with the support of GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade), renews its demands for a law to protect and promote agroecology on a local scale. Waiting to see the promises made by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte materialized in the Official Gazette. In line with, among other things, the bill signed by Congresswoman Sara Cunial, in referral to the House Agriculture Committee. The new Minister of Agriculture Teresa Bellanova is tasked with implementing the defined guidelines.
AssoRural and GIFT Call Giuseppe Conte
AssoRurale, the Italian Rural Association, addressed its press release to Giuseppe Conte on 8/28/19. In the wake of proposals to the new government made by GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade).
‘We don’t want a ‘minister of peasant agriculture’-although we would like a government to realize that the agricultural system in Italy is complex, diverse and multifaceted-but a minister(s) who is not the secretary of a party secretary or who confuses agriculture with tourism. A department head who spends more time listening to what is moving in the countryside, recognizing the diversity of agricultural models and the obvious growing advantage of agroecological ones based on labor, rather than on a mountain of hard-to-recover investments. […]
We demand justice. Public funds be equitably redistributed by rewarding labor, social and environmental sustainability and not acres. What need is there to give millions to companies that have turnovers in the tens of millions and live on contracting and seasonal labor (often illegal bordering on slavery)?’
Joseph Conte, on 3.9.19, met the demands of peasant agriculture. With a specific if brief reference in the twenty-ninth point of the government program to eco-agriculture on a local scale:
‘It is necessary[…] to adopt the necessary instruments to preserve traditional and organic crops, protecting production peculiarities and specificities, as well as peasant agriculture in so-called marginal areas‘
Farmer Farming Act, the bill signed by the Hon. Sara Cunial
On 6.5.19, Hon. Sara Cunial presented to the Chamber of Deputies a framework bill to safeguard and promote small-scale agroecology, highlighting its favorable and widespread social impact on territories. In the wake of the sharing that has already taken place in previous legislatures – most recently, on the proposed ‘framework law on peasant agriculture‘ (AC 2025, 17th Legislature) – without, however, reaching the expected result.
The bill, Provisions on Peasant Agriculture(AC 1825), was referred to the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture on 8/21/19. Still waiting to be placed on the calendar, for a review that will have to be as careful as it is expeditious. After 10 years of vacuous political promises.
Via Campesina and the UN Declaration ‘for the Rights of Peasants and Other Rural Workers,’ adopted by the UN General Assembly on 19.11.18, are appropriately cited in the Cunial bill. With the aim of recalling the values associated with these types of productions, in their historical, cultural and social implications. And affirm their rights, based on a declaration of principles that must also be implemented in terms of concrete access to agricultural policies. Referring to the Common Agricultural Policy but also to state aid as well as regional and local measures, which still marginalize small-scale agriculture such as the organic sector.
‘A farmer-farmer is one who, individually or in association with other farmer-farmers:
(a) directly conducts the fund by means of a majority contribution of labor as opposed to any other forms of employment or collaboration, and makes use of the work of his or her family members as a priority. Contribution of seasonal workers and employees is allowed within the limit of regional tables of labor units related to different productions;
(b) protect and promote biodiversity through the use of conservation and sustainable agronomic practices that minimize the alteration of soil composition, structure and natural biological diversity […];
(c) practice the direct sale of primary and processed products directly, including on the premises of the family home, at farmers’ markets, short supply chain circuits, local retailers and solidarity purchasing groups or through telematic platforms. Where processed products are sold, they shall be obtained from raw materials from the fund with the exception of products traditionally used for conservation purposes […];
(d) if he practices animal husbandry, this is to be understood of animals raised outdoors or conducted on pasture during the months when it is accessible, excluding indoor breeding methods and intensive forms of fixed housing.
‘The farmer-farmer may not grant to others, in any capacity whatsoever, the use of the land he cultivates.’ (Ddl Cunial, Article 2. See Note 1)
Cunial bill, analysis of the text
The bill signed by Sara Cunial – in addition to standing out for the notion of ‘farmer-farmer’ mentioned above – is articulated as follows:
– Establishment of the register of peasant farmers (Art. 3),
– Urban planning, building and sanitation requirements for premises used for agricultural activity (Art. 4). With forecasts of the type and quantity limits of the productions that can be admitted to the derogations provided for by the so-called Hygiene Package (whose forecasts, we remind you, will have to be notified in advance to Brussels),
– Transitional provisions on general requirements applicable to premises and equipment for processing activities, labeling, direct sales, and food hygiene training (Article 5),
– opportunities for amicable and free volunteer employment, in seasonal agricultural activities (Art. 6). By individuals outside the category of Art. 230a Civil Code (family business),
– Reclamation of uncultivated and abandoned land (Art. 7). Regions are required to survey and publish on the web, with triennial updates, uncultivated or abandoned land. So that peasant farmers can apply for its allocation, with a view to its actual use,
– VAT exemption for farmers who have achieved in the previous calendar year (or, in the case of start-up, plan to achieve in the current year) a turnover not exceeding 15,000 euros. (2) Regarding the supply of products that come from agricultural activity (Art. 10).
In contrast, some predictions contained in the Zaccagnini bill- ‘Framework law on peasant agriculture,’ AC 2025-aremissing. Which introduced major facilities for peasant farmers, such as:
– Simplifications of burdens on the processing, transformation and sale of limited quantities of ‘short supply chain’ (km0) products,
– tax relief. Reduction of at least 80 percent in fees and taxes burdening commercial activities selling zero-mile agricultural and food products from short supply chain and quality products, exemption from waste tax of farmers’ markets,
– free use of traded seeds by farmers (albeit with respect, of course, to registered patents).
It is essential to recognize the complexity of the Italian agricultural system. Which remains the country’s leading manufacturing sector, in terms of number of employees, and ranks first in Europe in terms of value added, second after France in terms of total value. (3) Also characterized by its primacy in organic production and extreme fragmentation of the production fabric. Where solidly capitalized and industrialized agriculture is flanked by small-scale agriculture in harmony with the relevant socio-environmental context. And it is to the latter that attention must now be given, without further delay. Given its value also in terms of employment spin-offs and the prevention of hydrogeological disruptions by reclaiming uncultivated land.
#Égalité!
Dario Dongo and Giulia Caddeo
Notes
(1) The Italian Civil Code, in Article 2135, contemplates only the figure of the agricultural entrepreneur. The activity of which, moreover, disregards the canons of agroecology and the conditions set forth in the current proposal
(2) The Zaccagnini bill (17th Legislature, AC 2025) provided for an annual ceiling of 25000 euros
(3) ISTAT, statistics – report, agricultural economic trends 2018, p. 7, https://www.istat.it/it/files//2019/05/Andamento-economia-agricola-2018.pdf
(4) Decree Law July 12, 2018, no. 86 https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2018/07/12/18G00113/sg
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Graduated in law, master in Food, Law & Finance. You have explored the theme of green procurement and urban food policies in the International Cooperation and Peace sector of the City of Turin.
