Early this morning a group of Greenpeace activists blocked all access to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Atocha, Madrid. The environmental organization demands the reduction of intensive livestock farming to 50% less in the year 2030, although the main request is the definitive end of macro-farms.
Members of the National Police have evicted the activists and the intervention of the firefighters has been necessary, who have cut the chains with which they had been anchored with radials. The eviction concluded at 10:00 a.m. and occurred without incident, according to sources from the organization.
One of the serious consequences of this practice of cattle exploitation is water contamination, a problem that the NGO has been denouncing for years due to the passivity of the ministry, which subordinates the quality of this vital good to the economic interests of a few.
Guaranteeing clean water should be a priority in any government, which has led Greenpeace to collect close to half a million signatures to demand the end of macro-farms, leaving the final signature to the minister. “499,999 signatures against the macro-farms, Minister Planas, yours is missing”, can be read on a package that seems to contain the documentation.
More than twenty activists have appeared carrying banners that read messages such as “The macro-farms are poisoning the water” or “We have little water, contaminated and poorly managed.” The organization maintains that they will maintain the protests peacefully until the demand is satisfied.
Next March 22 is World Water Day, an essential resource for our future survival. Greenpeace denounces the complicity of the current government, which knows about the poisoning of groundwater, which are the necessary reserves for a future of increasing droughts.
Luís Ferreirim, responsible for agriculture and livestock at Greenpeace Spain, declares that “the future of the planet and water depends on transforming the destructive agri-food model and the first step to take is to end macro-farms and reduce the number of intensive animals”. He adds that “we are making having clean water subject to unsustainable short-term economic interests.”
The data for groundwater in Spain are more than worrying. According to the Groundwater Action Plan 2023-2030, recently presented by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, 40% of these waters, key in a context of climate change and increasing water scarcity, are in poor condition. state.
The main causes of poor groundwater quality are overexploitation and nitrate contamination. According to the European Commission, the contamination of water by nitrates in the European Union is caused by livestock, since “it is responsible for 81% of the contribution of agricultural nitrogen to aquatic systems”.
Reversing the serious contamination of these waters by nitrates should be a priority objective for the ministry. To do this, it is necessary to stop the advance of industrial livestock and develop a strategic livestock plan that will reduce the intensive livestock herd by 50% by 2030. Some European countries are already implementing similar action plans.
This week the European Commission has approved the Flemish government’s plan to compensate farmers who decide to reduce the capacity of pig farms or close them completely. In our country, the pig sector is the main problem and according to provisional data from the Ministry of Agriculture, in 2022 more than 56.5 million pigs were slaughtered.
“Science urges us to act and we are, at least, half a million people who demand the end of macro-farms. It is urgent that Minister Planas listen to us and take action”, concluded Luís Ferreirim.
