They spilled the white milk on the black asphalt of the streets of Sardinia, like an unheard scream in the buildings of Cagliari, Rome and Brussels. They have invaded the white and useless paper of the agricultural bureaucracy that has always besieged them with black ink, worse than the grasshoppers in the plain of Ottana and Sedilo. Each of their protests is a litany of comments, most of the times of mockery and condemnation, for an activity, the agro-pastoral one, that not a few keyboard detractors pass off as assisted and funded by state, European and regional contributions. Too bad that work in agriculture, even worse in pastoralism, is, despite the importance of agri-food production, characterized by a fact that should make everyone think not a little: the income of rural workers is almost 40% lower than the income non-agricultural.
The shepherd & nature
Yet, they, the men of agriculture and pastoralism are the vital pivot of a virtuous and fundamental chain of life: food. Not to mention that constant presence in the valleys and mountains, in the plains and hills, to guard the territory, to make the presence of man the most complete expression of nature, in the delicate and essential balance between the human being and the environment. In Sardinia, an indented and isolated land like few others, all this coincides with identity, specificity, exclusive characteristics of the food products that make the agro-pastoral landscape of the island a unique one, to be safeguarded and enhanced, precisely because of its extraordinary exclusivity. And, on the other hand, in the palaces of the bureaucracy, between the deaf and mute walls of the institutions, from those of the capital of Italy to that of Sardinia, one never ceases to marginalize the productive destinies of flocks and herds, from Barbagia to Campidano, from Logudoro alla Gallura, passing through the Baronia and Sulcis. The pastures, sometimes luxuriant, others bristling with Mediterranean scrub, treated like a pestilence, are depreciated as if producing milk and cheese, feed and food, in the land of Nuraghi were a sacrilege to be denied at any cost.
J'accuse
This time, however, the Sardinian Shepherds, those without abbreviations and flags, protected the milk in their folds, they preferred to send a hard and tight j'accuse to Rome, a document as technical as it is nailing, explicit as few. Together with the contact person Fabio Pisu, the leaders of the revolt two years ago signed it, from Gianuario Falchi to Nenneddu Sanna, with them also Antonio Doa and Gianluigi Argiolas. The formula is that of the letter to the Minister of Agricultural Policies, Stefano Pattuanelli, the substance is an unprecedented indictment that denounces the great robbery of the Community Agricultural Policy from Sardinia, declined in the PSN, the National Strategic Plan, or the implementation of the European provisions. Strategic plans and, in short, the subdivision of the loans to be allocated to the sector which now, in the new Brussels formulas, becomes an “eco-scheme”.
The blitz of Rome
The mugging takes place between Rome and the capital of Europe. On the one hand there are the community offices that trace the new agricultural philosophy which, after all, seems to be written by looking at the landscapes of Sardinia, its original and identifying pastures, quality products and prostheses towards commercial niches with high added value. , on the other hand, however, it is the government of Rome that divides the spoils of the “Italian house”. The difference is made by the lobbies, the transversal ones and those from the north, of various categories and potentates. In an instant, those rural areas and landscapes to be protected disappear like snow in the sun in state programs, burned by the greed of those who already have too much and want more and more.
Cross-eyed and myopic eyes
In the National Strategic Plan, the one that must plan how to spend EU funds in Italy, Sardinia, its pastoralism, the one that feeds the specificity of the island is literally canceled: exclusion of sheep and goat farming from the eco-scheme 1. At the end March, is the 31st of last month, the European Commission invites Italy to review its plan for the implementation of the CAP reform for the period 2023-2027. Italian has, coincidentally, destined with squinting and myopic eyes towards the richer areas, "forgetting" about the poorer ones.
The call of Europe
The invitation from the Brussels offices relies on the courtesy of the building, but does not shy away from the substance of the disputes: Italy must improve the proposed strategy and the description of the interventions, guaranteeing the concentration of support towards the territories, beneficiaries and sectors most in need on the basis of analyzes and specific territorial needs. The message is clear: Italy is invited to review its strategy to ensure a more equitable and targeted distribution of direct payments as internal convergence and redistribution are limited to the minimum required. An internal convergence and a more ambitious redistribution - for Europe - would also have the effect of benefiting the most needy rural areas, given the urgent development needs of these areas of Italy.
Eight pages of proposals
The European call does not explicitly address the snatching from Sardinia, but it is as if it did. The Sardinian Shepherds, who with eight pages of technical, economic and financial evaluations, explain the great robbery that the Italian State is making against the agro-pastoral system of Sardinia, putting it in black and white with a precise analysis. The Italian government's spending proposal for the next five years of agricultural policy, the shepherds of the milk revolt do not analyze, they dismantle it. Piece by piece, point by point, with an extreme synthesis: the exclusion of the sheep and goat sector will result in a deadweight loss for Sardinia, on this front alone, of 600 million euros over the next five years.
Discrimination
More than an exclusion, it is a real sectorial and territorial discrimination: the eco-scheme I at level 2, in fact, is dedicated "to farms that undertake to comply with specific obligations in animal welfare, and which perform for the whole cycle, or part of it, grazing or wild breeding ». Of the island and its farms - the shepherds write to the Minister of Agriculture - "there is no trace despite the sheep and goat breeding that has always been in Sardinia (with the presence of animals estimated at about 3 million, 50% of those raised in Italy) has precisely these characteristics ". All this takes place in a land "with the largest number of herds in the sheep and goat sector and that the same (according to what is currently foreseen in the PSN) is excluded from the financing measures provided for within the eco-scheme, resulting in significant discrimination and penalization for all of Sardinia and consequently for the Sardinian economy ». In addition to sectorial discrimination, there is also territorial discrimination.
The northern lobbies
Here it is the northern lobbies that dominate the offices in Rome. Technically it is defined as attribution of the values of agricultural titles, in practice they are the sums destined to compensate for the production and income difficulties for each single agricultural hectare. Less compensation in the rich northern plains and greater in the poorer islands would be expected. The exact opposite happens in the government's plan. The denunciation of the Sardinian Shepherds is detailed: «In Italy - they write - there are still titles with a value of 2,000 euros per hectare which are 20 times higher than those of the Sardinian regional average. The slap is worse than the snatching: "The 2,000 euro securities cannot be reduced by more than 30%, always maintaining a value (at the end of the 2023/2027 programming) of 1,400 euro, while the securities of the Sardinian Region will not reach a value of about 132 euros (not even reaching the value of the national average) ". The government will have to propose corrections to Europe by 30 June. If it does not - the shepherds write - "we reserve the right to undertake any type of action to protect our sector to preserve the history and traditions of our Sardinian land". They wrote it with the grace of the Palace, but the meaning is explicit: we are ready for war.