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September 27, 2019Two million cows, pigs, sheep and goats have disappeared from Italian farms in the last ten years also due to global warming that has dried up the pastures, reduced the availability of fodder, cut milk production and increased costs to ensure animal welfare in more difficult weather conditions.

This is what emerges from the Coldiretti report "Sos climate for Italian agriculture" spread to the peasant village of Bologna where Noah's ark of Italian agriculture was inaugurated with animals, plants and products from the Italian farm threatened by climate change.

Animals lost in 10 years
'Fattoria Italia', explains Coldiretti, who "in the last decade has lost only among the largest animals, about a million sheep, lambs and goats, in addition to 600 thousand pigs and more than 100 thousand cattle and buffaloes. A farewell that it concerned above all the mountain and the more difficult inland areas where minimal economic and social conditions are lacking to guarantee the permanence of shepherds and breeders ".

Disappeared pastures and meadows
With animals, according to Coldiretti's analysis of Ispra data, pastures and meadows have also disappeared and the result is that over the last 25 years more than a quarter of the agricultural area has been lost (-28%) and with it the capacity to absorb polluting emissions. Due to the consumption of agricultural land, notes Coldiretti, the possibility of absorbing almost 300 thousand tons of carbon is lost every year.

Hydrogeological danger
The farewell to the land then causes the infiltration of millions of cubic meters of rainwater that, flowing on the surface, are no longer available for refilling the groundwater level, aggravating the hydraulic danger of the territory. With the closure of the stables, the production of manure and sewage is essential, as it is essential for fertilizing the land and at the base of organic farming. Then there is the Biodiversity of Italian stables where 130 breeds are threatened with extinction, including 38 of sheep, 24 of cattle, 22 of goats, 19 of horses, 10 of pigs, 10 of poultry and 7 of donkeys. Ettore Prandini, president of Coldiretti, underlines the need to "create the conditions so that the disappearance of the countryside is contrasted, guaranteeing a fair income to the farmers and enhancing their environmental role, also through the new law on the consumption of soil, approved by a branch of parliament in the last legislature but ended up on a dead track waiting for discussion in the Senate. We must remove this important norm for the future of Italy from the swamp and launch it as soon as possible ".