The first were the cherries. Then came the melons and thegrapes, and soon it will be the turn of the clementines. All grown in Italy without resorting to four widespread and controversial herbicides with a heavy impact on the environment, including the (unfortunately) famous glyphosate, much discussed for its (suspected) action genotoxic and for the (safe) environmental impact. Extra reason to delete it from vegetable gardens and orchards, as well as Coop Italia has asked over 100 agricultural suppliers from whom it buys fresh fruit and vegetables from spinneret sold with the brand name Coop.
And it is only the beginning: by 2022 will be 35 Coop fruit and vegetable supply chains where pesticides will be progressively reduced untilelimination. A pioneering operation, which involves more 7 thousand companies agricultural of all Italy, called to change their cultivation techniques. It is useless to look for indications "without pesticides" or "without glyphosate" on the fruit and vegetables of the Coop brand sold in the 1100 points of sale of the group: for the moment do not appear, because to guarantee it is Coop, which with this move continues its path of reduction of pesticides started 26 years ago.
"The molecules that we have banned this year from Coop brand products are added to the ten already eliminated in past years based on the principle of precaution – explains the quality manager of Coop Italia, Renata Pascarelli – This is why today our supply chain products have residue of pesticides 70% lower to levels allowed by law (which are already far away from guard levels), and are often even to zero residue". How were these results achieved? And how do you give up widespread pesticides? We went to find outApofruit of Vignola, where the cherries sold (also) with the Coop brand grow.
A dangerous escalation for the environment (and health)
From the second postwar period to date the global spread of pesticides has been clear. And that of the glyphosate formidable, because it is very effective in eliminating all types of weed and why, in crops GMO, can also be used after sowing, without damaging the crops.
Which soon made it a "Blockbusters", in particular since 2000, when the Monsanto patent expired, prices fell. THE'Italy is among the first countries in Europe for the consumption of pesticides per cultivated hectare that can be found in the alimony and at the same time contaminate the air, soil and water. Above all surface and underground waters are contaminated from pesticides with an increasing trend that often exceeds the quality limits environmental.
The effects of this boom on the environment and on human health have been measured only in times recent. And they generated a profound debate at the level world with conflicting positions of the authorities for the safety food. Although the International Agency for Research on Cancer has included it among the possible carcinogens, in the EU the glyphosate is still admitted and only in the 2022 will be evaluated again by EFSA.
How to make sustainable agriculture
So, in the EU you can continue to spray the glyphosate on fields and orchards. But they are studying and trying different ways to reduce it or delete it completely. To succeed, farms must change approach: dealing with different production techniques and investing in technology, adopting what is today called "precision agriculture".
An easier step to do if, on the other hand, there is a buyer (like Coop) who puts his agronomists alongside farmers to find e to apply the best solutions, sharing knowledge and possible support for theinsertion of new technologies.
Applying the methodologies and precision farming techniques are realized crops with water, energy and time savings; an app for example can map where the is placed seed so that the subsequent processing of fertilization, irrigation and disinfestation intervene exactly where it is needed with material savings, minors sprayings and increase in yield. Coop is willing to give farmers a higher price for compensate higher expenses and lower returns due to the renunciation of pesticides. But without altering the selling prices of the products to the public.
Anti-glyphosate strategies
For reduce recourse to pesticides of synthesis there are solutions manual, agronomic, mechanical, chemical or natural. Some are futuristic and still being tested, such as i robot that weed the cultivated fields in an ultra-precise way.
Others come from past, such as crop rotation (especially for cereals) and mulching, ie the coverage of vegetable crops and fruit trees (such as cherry trees) with biodegradable sheets or compostable that protect them from insects and bad weather. Then there are the "Pesticide" from natural, like i herbicides obtained from pelargonic acid, and those "Biological", ie with less impact on the environment.
Meanwhile, the research advances, (it takes 5 to 10 years to develop a new herbicide) the new ones are exploited technologies that allow the use of treatments only when needed and only in dose needed, avoiding rain interventions. And a lot also do tools mechanical "Intelligent", as the grass cutter a metal discs with angles that can better eliminate the roots of wild herbs, and with "teeth" harder and deeper or arranged in legs of hen to be more efficient in keeping clean ground around the plants.
Notwithstanding that in some cases eliminating glyphosate seems difficult, in particular for crops grown under difficult conditions or extreme (eg on terraces) and in soils a lot stony (as happens for vineyards and legumes) or for some crops "Delicate", such as asparagus and green beans.
Manuela Soressi
July 2019
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