Environment, polluting intensive farming: the transition, “With the urgency of changing the livestock production system as soon as possible”

ROMA – Intensive animal breeding is the second cause of animal training in Italy fine particulates (also called PM2.5) the set of solid or liquid substances suspended in the air. It is one of the most frequent pollutants in urban areas, responsible for two thirds of ammonia emissions in the country. It consumes two thirds of European agricultural land for crops intended for activities related to the production and industrial processing of feed.

The bill for the transaction in animal husbandry. Today, at the conference “Beyond intensive farming” at the Cavour Congress Center in Rome, the intensive livestock sector was discussed, based on a system that is unsustainable for the environment, health and animals. The event was an opportunity for a broad debate on the agro-ecological transition of the sector, the heart of bill AC 1760 presented last February in Montecitorio by Greenpeace Italia, ISDE – Doctors for the Environment, Flag, Terra! e WWF Italia and now awaiting calendarization in Parliament.

Urgent challenges in the livestock system. During the event, the motion promoted by the five organizations was also presented to the public as a new tool available to municipalities and citizens to support the legislative initiative. Those posed by the intensive farming system are urgent challenges to face, favored by incentives that especially reward the largest agricultural companies: in fact, 70% of the direct subsidies of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) go to them, although they represent just over 30% of Italian agricultural companies.

In 15 years, 51% of small agricultural businesses lost. On the other hand, between 2007 and 2022 our country lost over half (51%) of its small farms. In Italy, the livestock sector is the second cause of the formation of PM2.5, the so-called fine particulatesdangerous for human health, and is responsible for 14% of climate-changing emissions and the loss of natural habitats, important allies in the fight against climate change.

A system that needs to be changed. «The consequences of extreme climatic events – say the proposing associations – which we are witnessing in recent days in various parts of Italy, as well as the worsening of epidemics such as swine fever, and again, the crisis of small-scale agricultural companies, the unsustainable use of limited resources such as water and soil require a transformation of the current livestock system. A system that – our country, as well as the other EU states, is called to rethink, in line with what also emerged from the conclusions of the Strategic Dialogue on the future of European agriculture».