The Lombardy Region councilor: «The sector is associated with environmental damage, but the opposite is true. A virtuous approach is possible on emissions, land consumption and use of pesticides. Our fields and stables are an example.”
The agri-food sector in Lombardy is represented by almost 7 thousand companies which drive the development of 46 thousand supplier agricultural companies. Half of Italian milk is produced in the region, consumed fresh or transformed into cheese. And most of the pigs that feed the supply chains of the largest Italian cured meats are raised. The Lombardy DOP economy is the third in Italy in terms of value, it is growing more than the others and today stands at 2.6 billion euros, bringing excellent products to the world starting from Grana Padano. A very important sector, therefore, but overshadowed by the Milan of fashion, finance and design. Not only that. Agriculture is often dragged into the dock for its impact on the environment. A picture that Alessandro Beduschi, Councilor for Agriculture of the Lombardy regional council, decisively rejects.
Councilor, let’s immediately stick the knife in the wound: agriculture gives us food but is also responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, more or less 7-8 percent in Italy, ammonia, fine particles, nitrates as well as water pollution. And in Lombardy, the region with the largest number of intensive farms in the country, the problem with the environment should be even more acute. So is it fair to accuse agriculture of being dirty and bad?
We often talk about agriculture as a sector responsible for emissions and never about the opposite process. A cultivated field retains carbon dioxide, a lawn traps it in the soil, a hedge or agricultural planting creates biodiversity, a modern livestock farm produces not only nutrients but renewable energy using waste. Without farmers we would have no food, but no landscape, well-kept forests, clean canals, maintained embankments, drained land. When a farm closes, the environment does not gain: neglect, landslides, fires and abandonment arrive. Agriculture must be seen for what it is: not the problem, but an integral part of a complex solution. Feeding quality, healthy and affordable food to an ever-increasing number of people is a task that weighs on farmers and is too often forgotten. Also because the sector’s detractors should explain to us what the alternative model should be to the closure or strong downsizing of the sector in Italy. Import products from countries without rules? To think that each of us can produce our own food at home, like some dreamers with a lot of free time do? I believe that the best answer is the one given in recent years by a sector that is very open to technologies to improve not only production yields, but the quality of products and environmental sustainability. In Lombardy we are demonstrating this with investments and innovations that no industrial sector has adopted with the same speed, regularly proposing tenders to finance the reduction of emissions, the management of livestock waste, and the improvement of air quality.
What role does technology play in reducing pollution in the fields?
Today a system of sensors in a field can practically tell us plant by plant what the individual water needs are, or which ones need treatments with pesticides to avoid diseases. Two examples that translate into water savings and less use of chemical substances. In Lombardy we are experimenting with treatments with drones precisely to achieve almost surgical results. But not only that: with the so-called Tea (assisted evolution technologies), we manage to make plants more resistant to attacks by diseases and parasites by improving their DNA without external interventions. Those who, so to speak, characterized GMOs. We started experimenting with them on rice, saving the harvest from the foolish fury of some eco-moron who thought of tearing up our seedlings. The results are so encouraging that the region will soon also be a pioneer in tests on corn and vines. We believe that putting universities and research centers in continuous communication with the productive world is one of our main tasks and this is one of the most concrete examples.
High energy costs, fight against pollution, international competition: but can farmers resist?
Today the farmer asks for fair rules. Leaving Milan, the Lombardy of fashion, design and finance, and taking a tour of the so-called “Lower” provinces is useful for understanding that here agriculture is not just history and tradition, or simply quantitative production. It is also a social protection, it is the daily work of thousands of families. We ask operators to invest millions to reduce emissions, and then we allow food from non-EU countries that do not meet the same standards to enter the market. So we condemn them. We cannot force our breeder to be “green” and then put him in competition with those who produce at low cost and high impact. Sustainability is either also social and economic, or it is just ideology.
How does the Lombardy Region help farmers, also on the environmental front?
In the last year alone we have mobilized over half a billion euros between Psr, Pnrr funds and regional tenders for innovation, renewable energy, animal welfare and precision agriculture. We finance photovoltaic, biogas and biomethane systems, we support the purchase of low-emission agricultural machinery, we reward those who adopt crop rotations and soil conservation techniques or adopt the most modern protocols in their companies to promote animal welfare. The approach is simple: do not blame but accompany, making sustainability an opportunity, not a burden.
At what stage is the use of agricultural waste to produce energy?
Lombardy is a European example. We have almost 600 biogas plants, many of which are on farms, and we are among the top regions in Italy for the production of agricultural biomethane. What our animals “release” in the stables every day has always been a problem to manage. Indeed: the problem to manage when agriculture is associated with environmental impact. Instead it is an extraordinary resource for producing clean energy and therefore the concrete application of the circular economy. But not only that: we are fighting in Europe so that what remains in the plants, the so-called digestate, can be used as a natural fertiliser.
The last few months have been marked by swine fever. Where are we at?
A few weeks ago we received excellent news from the EU: the restrictions on pig farms in Lombardy affected by African swine fever (ASF) have been substantially eased. It is an important signal that rewards months of intense and coordinated work that made it possible to keep a virus that had hit heavily in the summer of 2024 out of the farms. Psa is not dangerous for humans, but just to give you an idea of how much damage it can cause to Made in Italy, just think that the majority of pigs that feed the supply chains of the largest Italian cured meats are raised in Lombardy. The battle is still long but today we have a little more confidence and what makes us proud is knowing that in other countries in the world the results obtained here are struggling to arrive even after years of fighting this virus. China, for example, has been living with swine fever for years and we can say everything about that country except that it has no tools or ability to make drastic decisions without going too subtle. Our small, big victory is that today the affected farmers can gradually return to normality.
How are your relations with the European Commission? Are there any critical points?
Brussels has always reasoned more according to principles than with a concrete vision that adheres to the real life of those who work. The Green Deal policies are acceptable in terms of objectives, but almost never in terms of timing and tools. We are in favor of the transition, but ask that it be gradual, based on scientific data and not on prejudices. Another great battle will be to avoid cuts to the common agricultural policy. In some EU office it is perhaps not clear that if you want to feed 750 million inhabitants healthy and controlled food at a fair price there is nothing worse than undermining or destroying our agricultural system. The alternative is to rely on food from countries where pesticides are still thrown from planes or hand over the monopoly of our food to a few billionaires. We trust that this European legislature, in which the previous balances have changed somewhat, can lead to more pragmatic and common sense decisions.
