More than 500 tractors and hundreds of farmers and farmers have collapsed in the center of Girona this morning to demand improvements in a sector in crisis. One of the demands has been the elimination of the “excessive bureaucracy” that takes away their time from “playing peasants” and “decent” prices for their products.
The protest of the primary sector of Girona has started in the Fontajau pavilion and from there they have moved to the headquarters of the Generalitat, where a manifesto has been read that summarizes the demands of a group that feels on the limit. At around 1:30 p.m. the tractors had already cut the N-II near Medinyà and the plan was to repeat the action on the AP-7 in the afternoon.
One of the proclamations that has received the most applause has been to reduce bureaucracy and paperwork. “We want to sow, plant or take care of our animals, we don’t want to spend half an hour of our working day in front of a computer,” said farmers Imma Puigcorbé and Íngrid Pou, who were in charge of reading the manifesto.
The cheers of the concentrates have also started, the demand for maintenance of professional agricultural diesel as well as the review of the new animal welfare law so that “it is appropriate and proportional to small productions and slaughterhouses and to each type of livestock.”
Another current topic, water management, is of great concern to the sector that demands to modify the % reduction in the use of water resources for agriculture and livestock. Agricultural farms located in areas affected by the drought emergency must reduce water consumption by 80%.
“We are producing food that is necessary for the population,” they argue and demand that the creation of water regeneration and desalination infrastructure be accelerated to supply cities with drinking water and that water from aquifers be a “priority” for food production.
In the water chapter, the primary sector of Girona asks that the water of the Ter “be a priority” for the geographical area of ????the river and “not for Barcelona” and that the water transport infrastructure such as the pipes that leak water be fixed to prevent further leaks.
Another of the sector’s headaches are all the food regulations that are required of the sector. They ask that food imported from countries outside the European Union comply with the same phytosanitary, animal welfare and occupational health standards that are required of European farmers.
“This is a very serious issue, we cannot produce in a certain way and yet, outsiders can do it in any way,” lamented this morning a farmer from the Selva region who produces dry-land cereals and with a exploitation of direct sale calves.
The group also asks for “economic facilities” in the purchase of fodder from other European countries and help to face the drought. “The viability of the farms depends on it, one that closes is one that does not return,” they say.
The primary sector demonstrated in front of the Generalitat with a multitude of banners on which all kinds of slogans could be read. “La nostra mort, la vostra fam” (Our death will be your famine), “No farmers, no food, no future” (Without farmers, there is no food or future), “La pagesia diu prou” (The peasantry says enough ) or “Amb el menjar no s’hi juga” (You don’t play with food).
There were also complaints against the Minister for Climate Action, Food and Rural Environment, David Mascort, and against the Catalan Water Agency (ACA), who are being asked to review the penalties imposed on farmers for irrigating fields to produce food. An amount that they consider “disproportionate” and that they sell “with eagerness to collect”,
