After 15 months of restrictions and blockades on cattle movements due to dermatitis, Sardinian farmers have decided to say enough and start a street protest .
On Friday the 25th, a demonstration will be held at the port of Olbia , organized by Coldiretti: the meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. The entire Sardinian cattle farming community will be mobilized, aiming to make the voice of a sector grappling with an unsustainable situation heard.
After making enormous sacrifices and accepting every prescription from political and health authorities; after committing themselves to the vaccination campaign, trusting the health authorities' recommendations , vaccinating 98% of their farms and approximately 97% of their cattle; and after complying with everything asked of them, today the farmers are saying enough is enough .
The final straw came at the meeting in Rome, at the end of which the Department of Agriculture confirmed the 20-kilometer surveillance zone . Managing the emergency has become "unsustainable" and continues to burden farmers, who are forced to pay for months to feed and keep animals that cannot be moved.
The demands are clear, and go beyond immediate financial assistance for farms. Farmers are calling for the disease to be downgraded and the protection zone to be reduced , so that the restrictions are proportionate to the current epidemiological situation and do not penalize Sardinian livestock farms. Because "Sardinia has done its part, with compliance with health regulations and very high vaccination coverage."
The voice of Sardinian farmers doesn't stop on the island, but wants to reach Brussels, making itself heard at national and European level: "The cattle sector must be able to get back to work and plan for its future."
(Unioneonline)