To the new government, some proposals to support the growth of the agribusiness sector in Italy. A sector that expresses about 13 percent of GDP and places the Bel Paese in first place in Europe for added value in agriculture, second place (after France) for agricultural production, and third place (after France and Germany) for food industry turnover. Facts, not words. Next, the ABCs.
A) Work in progress to be resumed
The previous two governments left unimplemented important measures for the support and growth of certain categories of businesses and entities operating (also) in the agribusiness sector:
– SMEs, innovative startups, trade associations. The Growth Decree introduced a series of measures to encourage investment in innovation, international registration of trademarks and patents, and overseas promotion. These measures still await implementing decrees, which are essential to release the relevant funding,
– Social enterprises and ETS (Third Sector Entities), implementation of reforms. The countless nonprofit organizations that operate for solidarity and social benefit purposes suffer serious harm to the development of new activities. Due to the failure to date to adopt the 41 measures on which the operation of LDs depends. 112 and 117 of 3.7.17.
So-called riders, workers who make deliveries in the
food delivery
, in turn await the measure that should regulate their collective agreement. The first piece of legislation in Europe aimed at defining minimum guarantees of protection for this category of workers–minimum wage, sickness and accident protection–was promised by the Ministry of Labor, 14.1.19, by March. Then nothing more.
Instead, peasant agriculture has been waiting for a framework law in Parliament for 10 years now. To support and incentivize small-scale agroecology through special measures and aids of significant impact on society and environment in every district of the Peninsula. Promoting, among other things, the rehabilitation of wasteland and degraded areas. A bill, already shared in 2017 with the relevant social partners, should be reintroduced and passed without further delay.
B) Measures to be taken urgently
The new government must also urgently adopt a series of indispensable measures, already urged by civil society and yet ignored by previous governments. In particular:
– pesticides, measures to protect public health and the environment from the so-called drift effect. On 26.2.19, the Chamber of Deputies voted unanimously on the united motion on ‘initiatives to ban the use of pesticides and herbicides in agricultural production, favoring their development by organic methods‘. In the meantime, there is an urgent need to define minimum distances of spraying from homes and offices, schools and sports facilities, other meeting places and organic farms. As well as requiring mandatory prior notification of treatments to the neighborhood, as already requested in special petition of the #NoPesticides group,
– Sludge decree, repeal now. Article 41 of the so-called Genoa Decree introduced unacceptable tolerance thresholds of allowable contaminants on sewage sludge intended for use in agriculture. Hydrocarbons, chromium, toluene, dioxins and PCBs and other toxic substances may contaminate the environment and enter the food chain because of a measure that neglected all due risk assessment. And it must therefore be removed before the whole of Italy becomes a ‘land of fires’,
– UnfairTrading Practices, implementation of theUnfair Trading Practices ( UTPs) Directive , EU dir. 2019/633. The Italian agrifood production chain is distinguished in Europe by its extreme fragmentation. The result is a marked imbalance of bargaining power of tens of thousands of suppliers with downstream operators, which needs to be mitigated as soon as possible by resorting to the measures in the UTPs directive,
– ecommerce. Further measures need to be taken against the global ecommerce giants, which continue to apply unfair contractual clauses that GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade) has already vainly denounced to the Antitrust Authority under the chairmanship of Giovanni Pitruzzella. As well as through unusual pressure on workers and unfair business practices toward consumers. Online market concentration and unfair competition against distribution in Italy should be investigated as soon as possible. The only sector, remember, that cannot relocate and is at the same time a fundamental garrison over territories, connecting those who produce and those who consume,
– payment terms. The measures established by Article 62 of Law 24.3.12 no. 27 must come into line with EU Directive 2019/633. Most importantly, the Finance Guard must be extended the powers of investigation and sanction, hitherto entrusted only to the (starvation of the) Antitrust Authority. The new government must also have the courage to address the systemic crisis of late payments in the Italian economy. Introducing a general deadline of 60 days, to be applied to every sale of goods and provision of services, from the respective dates of delivery or performance, in the private as well as public sector. Measures all the more essential to safeguard the ‘people of VAT numbers’ and micro-enterprises triggered by the employment crisis, whose owners are the first victims of the growing socio-economic inequalities, due to lack of protection compounded by the systematic difficulty of access to credit,
– Restaurant meat origin, fruit and vegetable origin served by communities. These measures, unlike others (such as the unfortunately illegitimate decrees on plant location and origin of pasta, rice, and tomatoes), can be freely adopted by the Italian legislature. Since the regulation of consumer information on products sold in bulk and pre-wrapped as well as foods offered by communities is left to concurrent national legislation (under EU Reg. 1169/11, Article 44). And such measures are crucial to boosting GDP growth by stimulating domestic demand for goods whose value is widely recognized by Italian consumers, as shelf sales figures already show.
C) Policies to be developed
The medium-term scenario, in Europe and Italy, also deserves a few brief nods of perspective. In Europe, our production chains as well as citizens and consumAtors are in real need of more guarantees on food security, equity and sustainability:
– biological. 10 years of agroecology in Europe, as shown in a recent IDDRI study, can save ecosystems and people’s health from the poisons that still plague them, without sacrificing food security. But the organic sector reaps only a fraction of the aid that comes from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which is still skewed in favor of large-scale industrial agriculture. And it is threatened, among other things, by the risk of de-regulation of new GMOs, which the U.S. would now like to allow even in organic production,
– #EatORIGINal! Unmask your food! TheEuropean citizens’ initiative to obtain mandatory indication of the origin of primary ingredients on all labels of food placed in the Internal Market is an indispensable step. And indeed, it should be strengthened by adding the duty to indicate the origin of food (i.e. Made in, the country and location of the factory where the products underwent their final processing). As well as by specifying the geographical detail of the information, which cannot be thwarted by completely meaningless wording. Such as the ‘EUand non-EU’ one, i.e. ‘Planet Earth Origin‘ (OPT), provided for in the shameful EU Regulation 2018/775,
– Equity and transparency in the value chain. The ‘High Level Forum for a Better Functioning of the Food Supply Chain,’ as it turns out, continues to dispense good advice and bad examples (cit. Fabrizio De André, Bocca di Rosa). Always serving monopolists, from the Big 4 in agrochemicals to the 10 big sisters in the processing industry and i to the global retail giants. A new leaf needs to be turned. First and foremost, ensure effective application, without any exceptions whatsoever, to the system provided for transparency in the value chain.
Citizens’ health and environmental protection in turn postulate a reversal of course, after Jean Claude Juncker’s neoliberal hangover in which all recent Italian governments have participated with the indigestion of toxic treaties. Of which Mercosur and CETA-along with the pending TTIP-represent the most serious risks, to European agrifood supply chains and public health.
The precautionary principle should be brought back to light, and on its basis safeguard measures should be adopted on dangerous goods arriving from non-EU countries. Which, of course, will have to come backed by adequate scientific basis, to prevent challenges in the WTO(World Trade Organization). Risks from pesticides, hormones and anabolic agents in meat and dairy products, for example, will have to be demonstrated). To justify restrictions on imports of foodstuffs that do not meet the public health standards guaranteed in the EU.
The new European Commission will then have to be pushed to fill the chasms left by previous ones on policies pertaining to endocrine disruptors, chemical safety of consumer products, microplastics, and harmonized regulation of MOCAs (Food Contact Materials and Objects). Without neglecting taking on food fraud with effective measures, as well as social-environmental policies to counter land grabbing and deforestation.
In Italy, the new government will be able to demonstrate discontinuity with its predecessors and stand out for efficiency and effectiveness in several respects:
– CETA and Mercosur, no to ratification. Agreements negotiated in the dark, without regard to the interests and rights of Italian citizens, must not be accepted by a country that risks the collapse of entire supply chains because of their effect (e.g., the animal husbandry, legumes),
– green procurement and sustainability of procurement must be brought to bear in every public administration. Social innovation under the banner of sustainability-which is much talked about and very little done-needs to be directed toward organic farming. And it must come in line with the criteria shared in ISO (ISO 20400:2017), to put an end to mocking as much as widespread greenwashing,
– FOOD CODE. European food law has undergone radical reform in the past two decades. As a result of the Food Safety White Paper that was signed by, among others, an Italian president of the European Commission (Romano Prodi), 12.2.00. General Food Law and ‘Hygiene Package’, Food Contact Materials and Food Information to Consumers just to name the milestones. The Italian food supply chain and control authorities, now more than ever, need a unified food code to refer to. A vademecum where to recall the set of European rules to be applied to the generality and to individual supply chains and products, to which to attach the national implementing and complementary rules,
– Official public audits, reorganization. It is also necessary to reorder the allocation of responsibilities to the authorities in charge of official public controls. Skills to this day misplaced, specifically pertaining to food labeling and advertising. Where the structural deficit of ICQRF – with a couple of hundred operational inspectors – compared to the need to inspect about 3 million businesses is evident. (1) The coordination of all controls by the Ministry of Health must be unambiguously stated, in line with the general principles defined at the EU level (reg. EC 882/04, now reg. EU 625/2017). And review the system of sanctions, with a view to deterrence and proportionality.
The above proposals will need to be discussed with supply chain and civil society representatives to better understand the positions of each with respect to the listed issues. Looking forward to memberships and updates, never losing hope for a better Italy!
#Égalité!
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Reference is made to the free ebook ‘1169 penis. Reg. EU 1169/11. Food news, inspections and penalties‘, at https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/libri/1169-pene-e-book-gratuito-su-delitti-e-sanzioni-nel-food
(2) See also the free ebook ‘Food Safety, Mandatory Rules and Voluntary Standards,’ at https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/libri/sicurezza-alimentare-regole-cogenti-e-norme-volontarie-il-nuovo-libro-di-dario-dongo
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
