Farming: only political will is needed
As the media have reported in recent days, we will soon experience new days of farmers' protests. For example, a tractor demonstration is scheduled to arrive in Barcelona on October 14th. Many citizens may ask themselves: why? Had their complaints not already been addressed?
Skyrocketing production costs; products from abroad entering without the same production rules; abuses by big industry and large distribution; extreme weather episodes, and political inaction that is suffocating us. This is how we, the farmers, still find ourselves, and the situation is unsustainable. For years we have been balancing to keep from quitting, but it is getting more difficult every time.
Given the current situation, many agricultural sectors do not even cover production costs. They chain one crisis after another until they become a structural problem that puts food sovereignty at risk. Depending on a model based on exports and imports can turn food into a weapon of war. In the latest speeches by the President of the Generalitat regarding the future of the country, agriculture, livestock, or food sovereignty have not been mentioned at any time, but if we want to eat we must have our own production, and that will only be possible with farmers who work.
We no longer have any more time. The number of self-employed people affiliated with agricultural activities in the Social Security in Catalonia, between 2000 and 2026, has decreased by 17,072. We have gone from 37,167, which is already a very low figure, to 20,095, 45.93% less. We cannot afford to lose even one more farmer. We must make the Government understand that we are an essential sector and that we need to breathe to survive. Because of all these repeated crises, from the Farmers' Union of Catalonia we have developed a protest platform in which we demand remunerative prices to ensure that farming activity allows for the resilience of the people dedicated to the sector, so that they have profits and can innovate and adapt to current and future challenges. But, to do so, it is necessary for the administrations to intensify the fight against the non-compliance with the food chain law and combat unfair competition from imports from outside the European Union.
Production costs must be affordable. A reduced VAT is required for all goods and services necessary for agricultural production, and a professional diesel rate must be established. To guarantee generational renewal and ensure the food supply for society, it is necessary to make effective the mechanisms that prevent the speculation of land and water. And for this, we need the drafting of the Territorial Sectorial Agrarian Plan of Catalonia to comply with the precepts of the law on agrarian spaces. We cannot lose another inch of agricultural soil.
The scarce agricultural land we have now is also at risk due to the damage caused by overpopulations of wild fauna that we have been denouncing for more than 25 years. The Farmers' Union (Unió de Pagesos) presented to the parliamentary groups a proposal for a Catalan law on the sustainable management of game fauna; a law that no one has the political courage to present and debate.
We need the involvement of the entire Government. We demand direct aid for professional Catalan farmers within the framework of the Generalitat's budget. Only political will and awareness are needed.