Southeastern Spain, one of the driest areas in Europe, has established itself as one of the continent's main agricultural hubs. Despite having a climate marked by minimal rainfall and long periods of drought, this region has become the heart of the so-called “european vegetable garden.” Thanks to state policies, desalination plants, artificial reservoirs, and complex water transfer systems between river basins have been built, allowing vast previously unproductive areas to be irrigated.

Several columns of tractors set off this Friday morning from various points in Catalonia towards Barcelona. They arrived in the Catalan capital at midday and, since early afternoon, have been blocking Barcelona's Gran Via, where traffic is blocked from Plaça Universitat almost to Passeig de Gràcia. Many farmers arrived with their tractors and left them in the central lane, while others traveled in their own cars and parked in front of the Coliseum cinema, on the side opposite the headquarters of the Department of Agriculture.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a package of measures on Wednesday to facilitate generational renewal in agriculture. The government presented this proposal after days of protests—particularly intense in Catalonia, but which have spread to other parts of Spain—against the European Union-Mercosur trade agreement (Mercosur being the trade bloc comprised of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay), which Sánchez himself has openly supported after Spain had previously expressed its support. According to a statement from the Spanish government, Sánchez considers ensuring generational renewal in agriculture "urgent" and a "top priority," and he presented the proposal to a group of young farmers and ranchers. Among these measures is the mobilization of publicly owned agricultural land, some 17,000 rural properties in total, which will be made available to young farmers through a dedicated platform.

Revolta Pagesa, the farmers' organization leading the road blockades across Catalonia, lifted the blockades this Monday after meeting with the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa. The President assured the farmers' representatives that both he and the entire Catalan Government stand by the commitments made by the Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, to the sector to minimize the impact of the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur. "I want to make this clear: Minister Ordeig speaks on behalf of the Government. And Ordeig's commitments are those of the Government and, in particular, those of the President," Illa emphasized. The Catalan Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, has advocated in recent hours for a "common front" between agricultural organizations and the Catalan government to create working groups and defend various positions regarding the trade agreement, such as mirror clauses, border controls, and a compensation fund for farmers affected by the agreement, among other issues. Ordeig also promised to defend farmers' interests before the EU to reduce the planned cuts to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). As a gesture of goodwill, this very Monday morning The protesters have lifted the blockade at the entrances to the port of Tarragona..

This week we will continue discussing funding, because on Wednesday Spanish Vice President Montero will present the model agreed upon with Esquerra Republicana in all the autonomous communities. It will be a formality, because the Spanish government holds a majority in this meeting.

The blockade that had kept access to the port of Tarragona closed since last Thursday has been lifted. For now, the farmers have opened one lane in and one lane out and will leave in a column once they have cleaned up. As explained in The morning of Catalunya Ràdio According to Eduard Escolà, spokesperson for Revolta Pagesa, the decision to lift the barricades was made after a meeting with the President of Catalonia, Salvador Illa. The protesters are confident that the Catalan government's role will help minimize the impact of the agreement between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur (the trade bloc formed by Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay). However, the farmers blocking the AP-7 highway in Pontós, the C-16 between Casserres and Berga, and the C-38 in Coll d'Ares, which are restricting traffic to trucks only, decided in several assemblies on Sunday night to maintain the blockades for at least one more night. This decision by farmers and ranchers came just hours after the Spanish government asked them to lift the blockades in exchange for forming a "common front" with the demands of all organizations in the sector and jointly presenting them to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and the European Commission.

Catalan farmers will continue their road blockades across the country, they announced on Friday, hours after the 27 member states of the European Union approved the free trade agreement with Mercosur (the South American bloc), against which they had begun their protests in Catalonia. The farmers have accused the Catalan government of having "sold them out," while the Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, defended the trade agreement, asserting that "Catalonia is the biggest winner." "We have a 105% agri-food trade surplus, which we want to maintain and expand," Ordeig stated regarding the Catalan primary sector. In this regard, he emphasized that, in an international context where "there are countries in the world that are isolating themselves and isolating us," it is necessary to "seek new trading partners." The regional minister met this Friday in Reus with representatives of the farmers who are blocking access to the port of Tarragona and asked them to act responsibly so as not to disrupt supplies.

"All my sympathy goes out to the farmers, okay? Just so you know!" the woman says, her voice like licking a mint candy. Because she complained a moment ago that "blocking roads doesn't get their cause across." This "being" makes her separate the two worlds. Farmers versus everyone else. That is, herself.

Catalan farmers and ranchers have taken to the roads again for the second day in a row to protest. Since Thursday, nearly a hundred tractors belonging to farmers from the Girona region have been indefinitely blocking the AP-7 motorway and the N-II highway near Pontós, in the Alt Empordà. They are protesting European agricultural policy, especially regarding [unclear - possibly "the European agricultural policy"]. the agreement with MercosurThe protest, which allows trade with Latin America, is also focused on the planned cuts to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The protest was organized by Revolta Pagesa, and members of the larger farmers' union, Unió de Pagesos, are participating individually. The primary sector association will meet this afternoon in Tarragona with the Minister of Livestock and Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, to try to resolve the situation. The tractors entered the Girona highway around 3:00 AM on Thursday and have blocked traffic ever since, forcing the closure of the road in both directions. Since yesterday, there have also been other protests at the entrance to the port of Tarragona and on the A-2 highway in Lleida, which remain blocked more than 24 hours later. At the port of Tarragona, the blockade has resulted in a 69% reduction in truck traffic. On Thursday, there were also demonstrations on the C-16 highway in Central Catalonia and at the Ares pass, in this case with the help of farmers from Northern Catalonia, which have since been called off. The protesters plan to remain indefinitely, at least at the blockade in Alt Empordà, until they prevent the ratification of the Spanish government's agreement with Mercosur.

Around 350 tractors blocked the C-25 highway (the Eix Transversal) on Monday morning to protest the overpopulation of wildlife in Catalonia, in a demonstration organized by the main agricultural organizations in the region. The mobilization, which began at 9 a.m., brought farmers to the streets to demand, above all, "control of overpopulations of game animals"—especially wild boar, rabbits, roe deer, and red deer—and a "review" of the Livestock Health Service. The march was supported by Unió de Pagesos, Revolta Pagesa, Asaja, and the Plataforma Pagesos o Conejos (Farmers or Rabbits Platform).

"Today, concern for agricultural lands is taking a backseat, because the evil is inside our homes," explains Elda Roda, a resident of Godall, a town that was a bustle of people carrying tools to remove mud from the ground, clean warehouses, remove furniture, and assess the ravine. But this doesn't stop those who make their living from agriculture from also being on alert. Most farmers in the area have been unable to access their farms to conduct a precise assessment of the damage, but they already sense that the rains have destroyed large areas.

–Hello, my name is Jordi and I have a question.I saw that your hotel allows pets, right? Pet friendly, it says on the website.

It's 5:30 in the morning, I make a coffee with milk, grab my backpack and walking stick, and open the corral gate to go graze before the sun and heat drive us out of the newly planted stubble.

Despite their dedication to producing solar energy, it's a tough sell in the world of small photovoltaic investors. In addition to the retroactive cuts in remuneration—first approved by the Socialist governments in 2010 and subsequently consolidated and aggravated by the PP governments starting in 2012, with changes to the rules and turning the "Official State Gazette" into a dead letter—are the effects of regulation, which reduces the current amount many producers are currently experiencing. This is a positive situation for consumers thanks to the influence of renewables and the contributions these pioneers made, but it is now penalizing them, while large investors are not suffering because they have greater financial strength and can take advantage of economies of scale. "They're forcing us out of the market. Many have had to sell off," complain the small investors, who number around 62,000 families, some 8,500 in Catalonia, especially in rural areas, and are demanding solutions from the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

"The Generalitat is a mess." This is how the president stated this Tuesday. representative of Unió de Pagesos in the Territorial Hunting Council of LleidaRamon Comes, to denounce that farmers are receiving little help to deal with attacks by rabbits, wild boars, and roe deer. Comes asserts that neither the Department of Agriculture nor the Department of the Interior are providing the tools they had promised to combat the devastation of fruit trees, vineyards, and cereal crops caused by the overpopulation of wildlife. "We don't want to exterminate, we want to balance. The imbalance between farmers and wildlife is increasingly significant," he added. If this doesn't happen, Comes warned, "there will be consequences on the streets" in the form of protests.

We read in the ARA (Argentine National Archives) that the brown bear has now been fully reintroduced in the Catalan Pyrenees, as there are 47 of them. The Director General of Environmental Policies and the Natural Environment, Marc Vilahur, has already stated that it is necessary to "ensure the coexistence of this species with local communities" and that they will work with "pilot projects using smart collars."

The Government-pagesos agreement will be good if the Government complies with the pact, but for now it is what they call onewin-win.The executive wins because, in politics, the game of perceptions is fundamental and the agreement was reached on Sunday night. Message: the Government works on a Sunday night to defuse a problem that could complicate the circulation of many people on Monday morning, it reserved a favorable headline to start the week and President Illa could say, like someone who coughs modestly to hide a success, "We have woken up with the country working and without roads cut off." Nothing less than what people expect from the rulers, that they solve the problems and do not believe us anymore.