Today, the European Commission has adopted the strategies "From farm to fork" in favor of an equitable, healthy and environmentally friendly food system and "Biodiversity 2030". Both documents are linked to the agri-food sector and are framed in the so-called "Green Pact".
Among other measures, it is proposed to reduce the use of plant protection products by 50% by 2030, reduce the use of fertilizers by at least 20%, decrease sales of antimicrobials used in livestock and aquaculture by 50%, and reach 25 % of agricultural land dedicated to organic farming.
The minister has assured that he supports this orientation towards greater environmental sustainability of the "Green Pact", but warns that dizzying changes cannot be made, that the Member States must have enough time to achieve these objectives and sufficient budgetary resources to achieve them.
"How much money is available to carry out this task is one of the main elements of concern for the government and the entire sector," said the minister. The achievement of these objectives "should not be an additional burden that the sector and that farmers, ranchers and fishermen cannot bear," he added.
In this sense, he pointed out that the strategies should have been adopted at the same time that the new revised 2021-2027 financial perspectives and the Recovery Fund were made public next week.
He recalled that a large part of the measures for the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will be strictly linked to the ability to finance to face new challenges.
Thus, 40% of the budget of the future CAP is directed towards measures to combat climate change and preserve the environment.
The minister has emphasized the role that the agri-food sector has played in the crisis, which has been strengthened and has supplied the population with food in quantity and quality. "If the sector has worked well, if the CAP has been vindicated in this crisis, these two documents of the European Commission must promote a debate in the community institutions and between the Member States" to improve, to have objectives of greater environmental sustainability " and also economic and social.
Economic, so that agricultural, livestock and fishing farms are profitable and social to ensure that this less populated, empty Spain has a future through the activity of the agri-food sector, according to the minister.
These are proposals of a strategic nature that should be discussed in order to reach an agreement and "we hope that positive conclusions will emerge from this debate for a more resistant, more modern, and more competitive agri-food sector."
