CLIMATE – "MADE IN ITALY" AT RISK. IMMEDIATE INTERVENTION NEEDED. OLIVES HAVE ALREADY MIGRATED TO THE ALPS AND PEANUTS ARE BEING CULTIVATED IN THE PO VALLEY

The high competitiveness of "Made in Italy" goods, which is based largely on the success of the territory, tourism, and the good cuisine, is now at risk due to climatic changes which are causing a shift in the production of typical Mediterranean foods: from wheat for pasta, to tomatoes for sauces, from grape vineyards to olive orchards.

This is the latest affirmation by Coldiretti in reference to an intergovernmental report by experts on climatic changes (IPCC) that met in Paris to emphasize that the increase in temperatures is causing a migration of typical Italian products, while the increase in sea levels is causing the destruction of entire beaches with incalculable consequences for local tourism.
Coldiretti noted that this process is already in an advanced stage in Italy, and a significant shift in traditional cultivation areas has already occurred. Like olives that have made their way all the way up to the foot of the Alps, the first peanuts that are now being harvested in the Po Valley, and where wheat and tomatoes are already being produced in large quantities as well.
But these climatic changes are also manifesting themselves in ever more frequent extreme weather events and abrupt seasonal changes, short and intense rain storms, late freezes, a decrease in water reserves, and a consequential increase in fungus and insect (like locusts) infestations. According to the most recent annual environmental update from APAT, areas in Italy that have a high desertification rate cover 36% of the entire territory of Sardinia and Calabria. Coldiretti points out that these are processes that represent a new challenge for agricultural enterprises and that these changes and their effects must be interpreted through the agricultural cycles, the management of water and the security of the territory.

And Coldiretti sustains that this endeavor must be accompanied by an increased decidedness to reach the goals set by Italy and by the Kyoto Protocol, by developing alternative energy sources obtained from agricultural cultivation in order to reduce the impact of greenhouse gas effects from combustible fossil fuels. Coldiretti concluded that by increasing the cultivation of crops for bio-fuel (bio-diesel and bio-ethanol), using agricultural, forest and farm by-products, as well as by installing solar panels in Italian agricultural industries, 13% of the total energy needed for Italy could be provided for, saving over 12 million tons of petroleum and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 30 million tons, thus, a significant aid in combating climate change.