In the space of a generation, Italy has lost more than one in four agricultural land, following a wrong development model that has caused the disappearance of 28% of the countryside.
This is what emerges from an analysis by Coldiretti released on the occasion of the G20 in Florence, during the mobilization of young farmers.
Over 400 million kilos of agricultural products have been lost in a decade, with the artificial covering of cultivated land which in 2020, Coldiretti underlines, reached the speed of 2 square meters per second, despite the lockdown and the construction crisis. according to Ispra data.
The greatest loss was recorded for cereals and vegetables with the disappearance of 2.534 million quintals. "Italy must defend the agricultural heritage and the availability of fertile land by aiming at a form of food sovereignty with the NRP projects", comments the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini, underlining the need to speed up the approval of the law on consumption of soil still standing in the Senate, which could provide Italy with an avant-garde instrument for the protection of its territory. "
And precisely in this regard, Coldiretti brought the first exhibition of typical products that save the earth to the square in Florence from overbuilding and speculation.
These are specialties that, thanks to farming systems and socio-economic networks, safeguard the territories from degradation, abandonment and land consumption. And this thanks to the Cardoncello mushroom with Barena honey and Casoperuto, from the Cosaruciaru bean from Scicli to the Pisan Piattella, but also to horseradish, the horseradish bitter from the USA and the Tiday bay wine from Canada. Local treasures whose value goes beyond the economic dimension, points out Coldiretti, but represents a model of sustainability that protects the land and populations. (HANDLE).