Maria Carme Plana: "All the government has done in two years is put the name 'Agriculture' on the department's name. I couldn't care less!"

VallgorguinaMaria Carme Plana Perxachs (Vallgorguina, 1983) is a livestock farmer and forester at the Can Plana farm in Vallgorguina, which dates back to the early 12th century. She is a member of Revolta Pagesa, a group founded two years ago, and president of the Association of Shepherds of Montnegre and El Corredor. She also serves on the board of the Forestry Consortium of Catalonia, is involved with Mujeres del Mundo Rural (Women of the Rural World), and other farmers' and livestock breeders' groups.

We conducted the interview the day after she went to Pontós to support the road blockades protesting against the approval of the Mercosur treaty (the trade bloc formed by Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay)This will bring South American food into our markets, creating unfair competition for locally sourced food, which always faces more stringent requirements of all kinds. And also against the cuts to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and against the government's handling of contagious nodular dermatosis and wildlife.

You have Ripollesa sheep.

— Yes, and I sell the meat, as well as the goat kids. When we have a surplus of milk, we make cottage cheese for ourselves. We take care of the flocks so they can reproduce; I have about one ram for every forty ewes.

The farmhouse has black and white photographs on the walls. There's a lot of history there.

— It's one of the oldest farms in Vallgorguina. I was born there, and it's in my blood. However, my parents wanted their children to study, so I enrolled in law at Pompeu Fabra University. I graduated and practiced law at a firm and also in the public sector. One day, the public company carried out a mass layoff, and that's when I reconsidered what I wanted to do. I decided to become a high school teacher, and at the same time, I helped my parents on the farm. All this until I realized I couldn't do so many things; I wanted to balance work and family life, and I opted for the farm. I registered as self-employed in 2014. And in 2017, I decided to take over everything. It's just me and one employee, plus my family; my brother, who's a forest ranger, helps me with the forest management.

What led you to protest?

— The Mercosur agreement, which is an injustice and an affront to our food.The government's lack of attention to rural areas, which occupy a large part of the territory, and the fact that they don't allocate any budget to them. We are farmers and ranchers, but we are not ignorant.

Can Mercosur reverse course?

— No, despite the pressure we've exerted and our stated opposition, we won't succeed. But we have other complaints. We've met with the Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, and the President of the Balearic Government, Salvador Illa, and asked them to grant us the same tax breaks on fuel as fishermen.

Will this bonus achieve that?

— For now, we only have words, but no action. If we don't see any action by February 6th, we will take our tractors to the roads. And we will do so on February 6th because that is the date on which Revolta Pagesa emerged two years ago, and which was officially established as a trade association a year later. Therefore, we have warned the Government that if, within this timeframe we have given them, we do not see any action demonstrating that they are listening to us, then we will take to the streets again with our tractors.

He wanted to stay in Pontós indefinitely.

— Yes, but in the end we didn't go ahead because we had the meeting with the regional minister and the president last Monday afternoon, and we saw a positive attitude. At each road blockade, we held assemblies to decide whether to proceed. There was exhaustion, because some of our colleagues had been sleeping in tents for days in the cold. It even snowed on them in Coll d'Ares. We're incredibly stubborn. The government committed to getting to work. And we took a leap of faith and trust. What we want is for our people not to have to close their farms.

Or the land should not be sold for the installation of solar panels.

— I ask myself: why don't they put them on degraded land? Why do they have to put them in farmland? I also understand the farmers who aren't making a profit from their work on the land and so they say: what should I do? I'll take the money I get from solar panel parks. But we don't know if this decision is a short-term fix that will lead to long-term problems.

What specific details did they share with you in the meeting with the advisor and the president?

— They told us they would implement it immediately. Since the 2017 law on agricultural land doesn't have implementing regulations, they said they would create them so that it can be an effective tool for agricultural regulation, governing land use. They also told us they would allocate more funding.

What budget will be allocated to the sector now?

— They tell us we're the gardeners of Catalonia, but then they only invest 4% of the budget in us. If our fields attract tourism, if we make Catalonia beautiful, then we'll see the difference. We work for our community, because we provide quality food and because everyone enjoys walking in the woods, but first I have to manage it and earn a living doing it.

When will they tell us if they will contribute more than 4% of the 2026 budget?

— For now, it's all just talk. They've promised to contribute a larger percentage, which they'll take from tourist taxes. Two years ago, when the Revolta Pagesa (Farmers' Revolt) started, I went with my father in the tractor and trailer to Girona. I went full of hope because I thought we could put pressure on them. Then everything turned out the opposite. The only change the government has made since the first farmers' revolt has been to rename the department "Agriculture." I couldn't care less about that change! I feel betrayed and I think they're laughing at me, at us.

Finally, what other changes would you like to see?

There need to be competent people in the regional offices to help us with the paperwork. I have to pay a technician to help me, not because I don't know how to do it, but because I don't have the time: I'm the only one worker on the entire farm, and I also have a family. On top of that, I have to fill out paperwork similar to what a food processing plant needs, even though I'm self-employed and do it all myself. So now we have to pay for an accountant, we have to learn how to use the software they tell us to use, and if the connection goes down—which happens in Vallgorguina—everything falls apart. And on top of that, I have to do the fieldwork, which is what I love to do. And it's what those of us who work the land want to do.