"Without agriculture there is no life, there is no food sovereignty, there is no freedom; we only ask for the possibility of continuing to honor the teachings of our parents and our grandparents, who with respect, love and dignity brought us to cultivate the value of the land and what it represents, with the one and only objective of leaving a better world for our children".
It is a passage from the full text of the farmers' 'Speech for Sanremo' of which Amadeus will read an extract this evening at the Ariston.
The document is signed by Alessandra Oldoni, Giulia Goglio, Davide Pedrotti, Fabio Pizzaris.
"We are close to the farmers": Amadeus concludes with these words the reading on the Ariston stage of the extract of the Speech for Sanremo presented by the farmers protesting in Sanremo.
"In recent days - explains the artistic director - I expressed my willingness to welcome on stage the reasons of the farmers who are protesting to defend the rights of the category that they believe is threatened by the European reforms of the sector. I am now reading a text that has been shared with farmers present in Sanremo".
"This is the document we would have liked to read on the Ariston stage", write the signatories at the bottom of the 'Speech for Sanremo'.
"Italian farmers - we read - pay the price for wrong decisions not based on science. Just think of community policies such as the green deal, the air quality directive or the regulation on pesticides, fortunately withdrawn by the EU Commission thanks to our protests; all these policies, in our opinion excessively unbalanced in favor of the environment, are to the detriment of all Italian agriculture, with particular reference to small businesses. The sword of Damocles of the prices paid to farmers weighs heavily on these issues. We remember to everyone that we cannot plan the selling price of our products, because we are subjected to a market drugged by speculation, where the price paid to us is a tenth of what consumers pay".
The statement goes on to explain the reasons for the protest: "we ask for a clear law that guarantees the fair distribution of value along the agri-food chain, with mutual benefits for agricultural producers and consumers. The prices paid to farmers have been stable for thirty years, so much so that some products cost up to ten times more for consumers. We are the only category that cannot rely on production costs and cannot apply costs, suffering all the disadvantages of the market and the possible bad weather of the season, despite having high and certain costs linked to sowing and production".
"We are not going to bore you now by listing in detail what we ask for, which we have explained several times to the press and brought to the attention of politicians, but we want to limit ourselves to transmitting a very simple message - the document continues -: we farmers are not in the streets for ask for help or subsidies, but only to ensure that we are paid the right remuneration for the hard and irreplaceable work we do every day, thanks to which every citizen can eat every day. Unfortunately, this has not happened for some time, so much so that today the majority of fruits of our labor is largely underpaid, with revenues that are well below production costs".
And he concludes: "We therefore protest to defend the DIGNITY of all farmers and to forcefully ask that the RIGHT VALUE be paid to our productions. A Future for Agriculture and Made in Italy All this simply because without agriculture there is no life, there is no food sovereignty, there is no freedom; we only ask for the possibility of continuing to honor the teachings of our parents and our grandparents, who with respect, love and dignity led us to cultivate the value of the land and of what it represents,
with the one and only goal of leaving a better world for our children.
We conclude with a greeting to Italy, to Rai and to you Amadeus.
Thank you for giving farmers a voice in the temple of Italian music.
In recent days we have insisted on wanting to go on stage ourselves for a single reason: to also show our faces, clean faces that represent the future of Italian agriculture and passionate eyes of those who still believe that, quoting Pope Francis, THERE IS NO AND HUMANITY WITHOUT CULTIVATION OF THE LAND.
This is the speech we would have liked to read on the Ariston stage."
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