WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY SICILIA News Journal Update - (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria: CHANGE IS STILL POSSIBLE -Will farmers change the world? (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

It's possible! Only if we understood the general risk we are facing. We
don't realize it yet. Floods with overflowing rivers that in their reach
destroy everything they hit. When we understand maybe it will be too
late? We do not know. Woods of hundreds of hectares destroyed by flames
with all the fauna that lives within them. And farms completely
destroyed. Last summer in the countryside of Cefalù a young horse
breeder was burned to death by flames together with her animals. Whose
fault is it? Arson? Also! High temperature? Yes. It also happened to me
that I set fire to the brushwood with a fire 5 meters wide and the
flames pushed by the wind, even if light, went further and witnessed the
unexpected: seeing the fire spread towards other lands and promptly
having to ask for help from the forestry to put it out.

Enough! Something must be done to prevent the end, which could come in a
few decades. Melting glaciers, sea water levels rising and the waters
overheating quickly evaporate, giving rise to the formation of
threatening clouds which transform into devastating storms and tornadoes.

Will farmers change the world? It would be very nice if that happened.
However, it is essential to make a distinction! There are farmers who
have chosen to cultivate the land respecting ecosystems, using methods
such as organic, biodynamic and more complex agriculture such as
agroecology.

And there are farmers who cultivate the land using chemical products,
unwittingly contributing to the elimination of biodiversity and climate
change. Biodiversity is the variety of animal and plant species present
on earth which favors the creation of a perfect balance and mutual
support between the animal and plant world. For example, the bacteria
present in the soil fix nitrogen, or other organisms such as earthworms
which with their movements form small tunnels that allow the soil to
breathe, or which break down the organic matter into nutritional
substances for the plants allowing them to live in healthy soil.

Pollinators such as bees, wasps, butterflies etc. they favor the
reproduction of plants that guarantee food production; small insects
such as the ladybug protect the plants by feeding on aphids which attack
the plants, preventing their development with the honey which they in
turn secrete. Now, we are losing all this balance due to the reckless
use of chemistry and fossil energy.

Scientists have raised the alarm by stating that a million species are
disappearing (out of an estimated total of 8 million), many of which
risk becoming extinct within a few decades. We must intervene and stop
this wicked decline always due to man, who does not realize the enormous
damage he is causing to himself, to agriculture and to the environment.
In recent decades the soil has undergone destructive changes with
deforestation, intensive monoculture and the massive use of pesticides.
The most striking case concerns the use of glyphosate in agriculture
(scientifically proven to cause cancer). The EU commission had
undertaken to decide by December 15th whether it should be abolished or
extended. Well, in recent days it has pronounced itself authorizing its
use for another 10 years. This is just absurd! How can we protect
biodiversity or stop climate change if the EU is then at the service of
the chemical multinationals controlled by Bayer-Monsanto? There is a way
to stop them. It should be the farmers who decide not to use chemicals
on a global level forever. Then, farmers will truly save the world by
converting land from chemical agriculture to organic agriculture.

When I began to convert my farm to organic (1985), I applied all those
methods that were intended not only to nourish the plant, but also to
bring it back to its natural state in contact with healthy soil and make
it grow strong and balanced, capable to defend themselves from parasitic
attacks. Today, after many years, the result is this. During the
conversion which lasts 3 years for tree plants and 2 years for
herbaceous plants, the plant undergoes a shock, due to the new
adaptation and the probable lack of macro and micro elements, for which
it is necessary to intervene with the right amount of nutrients. I used
manure, lithotamnium (Brittany seaweed), green manure from legumes,
nettle macerate to combat aphids, wood ash and clearly good pruning in
order to ventilate the plant to avoid the formation of fungal diseases
such as soot.

A few years earlier, when I was working on the railways in Turin, I made
the first direct sale of oranges. I studied macrobiotics and attended
the organic farming association "Suolo e Salute" whose president Dr.
Garofalo put me in contact with a trader from Cuneo with whom I signed a
sales contract for 25 quintals of oranges. Then I rented a warehouse to
store the rest of the oranges. In the village the traders paid 100 lire
per kg for oranges, a very low price that humiliated and despised the
work of my father who had planted that garden with so much love and
passion. Liberation and redemption, I thought, from exploitation and the
middleman. When everything was ready I organized the transport. I
contacted a haulier to send a load of 100 quintals of oranges to Turin.
In the end everything went well. I sold all the oranges, I think then at
800 lire per kg.

At that time, the Sicilian organic farming coordination of which I was
part was born in Sicily. My knowledge expanded and I joined the coop. El
Tamiso of Padua to which I delivered my oranges for several years. Today
I sell the fruits of my land, both fresh and processed in Gas, directly
to families, in the agritourism sector and to some distributors.

Returning to the topic of climate change, statistics say that
agriculture accounts for 30% globally. They say that climate change has
always been there. But what we are witnessing in recent years is very
anomalous. They call it the anthropogenic greenhouse effect, which is in
addition to the natural greenhouse effect. We all know that with the
industrial revolution, man has released millions of tons of carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, increasing the
average temperature of the planet in a frightening manner. Scientists
say it has increased by 0.98° C which, in the absence of interventions,
could reach + 1.5° Centigrade between 2030 and 2050. It would be almost
total destruction.

With the daily work that I carry out on my 12-hectare certified organic
farm (I grow oranges, must grapes, olives, ancient grains and vegetables
for family use), in my own small way I try to safeguard biodiversity and
at the same time, apart from the use of the fuel necessary to power the
rotary cultivator and the motor pump for lifting the water, to avoid
introducing elements into the air that could increase the temperature.
The ideal would be the use of renewable energy such as photovoltaic, but
it has its cost, which at the moment I cannot afford to implement.

Climate change is greatly affecting the production of both tree and
herbaceous plants. Especially in the last 20 years. The drought
compromised production. There was no flowering in the orange grove in
2022. Gone are the days when, 20 years ago, I was able to harvest up to
200 quintals of oranges, today if all goes well I can reach 50 quintals.
Wheat production fell by 50%. This year, with the rain in June which
caused fungal diseases, the vineyard was attacked by downy mildew,
causing the bunches of grapes to dry out, consequently I did not
harvest. Then in the month of September in an area of the San Biagio
Platani area (where I live) a whirlwind concentrated, causing an
unprecedented hailstorm with grains similar to a walnut, destroying
everything in its path: olive groves, vineyards and pistachio groves. My
olive grove was also affected. More than a thousand kg of damaged olives
equivalent to 200 litres. of lost oil. And then damage to homes,
photovoltaic systems, roofs and vehicles. Damage amounting to millions
of euros.

This year summer arrived in early July, the temperature reached 45° and
47° for a period of 10 days. In September 35th/37. This heat continued
throughout the month of October, dropping to 30°/32°. Even more serious
was the lack of rain in October, negatively affecting the growth of
oranges, which, in most cases, remained small. The first rains arrived
in early November. But the damage has already been done.

Enrico Caldara

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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