In Italy there is a problem linked to the territory. From last January to today, 1,552.72 square kilometers of woods, forests and countryside have gone up in smoke as a result of the fires. In practice it is as if the fire had destroyed the total area of Rome and Parma, or seven times the Island of Elba or almost a tenth of the extent of all the Italian national parks.
In the space of a generation, more than one in four agricultural land has also been lost, following a wrong development model that has caused the disappearance of 28% of the countryside.
This was estimated by an analysis by Coldiretti published on the occasion of the G20 Agriculture in Florence, during a mobilization of young farmers. It is in fact an event organized by the Ministry of Agricultural Policies, which will see the participation of the Ministers of Agriculture and delegates of the G20 and non-G20 countries, of representatives of farmers’ organizations and international organizations and of entrepreneurs.
According to Coldiretti, over 400 million kilos of agricultural products have been lost in a decade, with the artificial cover of cultivated land reaching the speed of 2 square meters per second in 2020, despite the lockdown and the construction crisis, according to the data from the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra). 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 for a form of food sovereignty with the projects of the PNRR” declared the president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini.
Of great importance, according to the association, is the approval of the law on land consumption still firm in the Senate, which could – according to Coldiretti – equip Italy with a cutting-edge tool for the protection of its territory.