Nearly a thousand people gathered yesterday afternoon in Logroño to defend agriculture and livestock in La Rioja as a guarantee of quality and healthy food. First in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, forming the flag of La Rioja with … colored t-shirts, and later in the Concha del Espolón, reading a manifesto, the unions ARAG-Asaja, UAGR and UPA brought together farmers, ranchers and citizens in general to demand “the maintenance of the rural environment and the natural environment.”
Óscar Salazar (UAGR) asked that both Gonzalo Capellán and Pedro Sánchez “take note.” «We have hope, starting with the next European elections, that the entire agricultural policy will change. We must have food sovereignty, it is necessary at this time,” warned Óscar Salazar. Eduardo Pérez (ARAG-Asaja) highlighted that the primary sector is “the main one, the most important, because we go to farmers and ranchers three times a day to eat.” “We want, once and for all, the political class to listen to this sector,” said Pérez, who warned that, if there are no changes, they will continue to mobilize. “The pockets of ranchers and farmers are very bad, there is no profitability,” he added. On the other hand, Néstor Alcolea (UPA) was satisfied with the response of society. «The family farming model that predominates in our region puts on the table the best products we can have. We must promote policies that favor family farming and give it a future,” explained Alcolea.
The chefs Francis Paniego (Echaurren), Ventura Martínez (Delicatto) and Angelines González (Heladería DellaSera), accompanied by Fernando Sáenz, read together a speech in favor of the sector. Before, they offered statements to the media as producers of that defended raw material. «We want to show that we are nothing without all the work of these people. We are the spearhead of the agricultural sector, we need them and, when they have asked us, our obligation is to be here, denounce their situation and, if we can take advantage of a certain preponderant position of prestige of chefs today, if it helps, delighted. This must be defended tooth and nail, our territory and landscape are involved,” said Francis Paniego, representing Martínez and González.
«The differentiating fact of Rioja cuisine is the quality products that we work with and that we boast about. If not, we go to a kitchen that is the same, without personality. We, without all these people, have nothing to do, that is why we are here, to defend their work, we are very proud of them. Let’s see if together we can make Rioja society aware and every day, when we shop, we put our euro into quality Rioja products,” Francis Paniego stressed.
6% of the GDP of La Rioja
Yesterday’s demand focused on the quality of the local product, although not so much because of the discreet influx of people, compared to the massive one on February 8, but because of the calm as opposed to the tension and tension of the tractors of months ago, the concentration seemed lax, decaffeinated, although completely correct. “When we fall into the temptation of buying foreign products, at first it will seem cheaper but in the end it will be more expensive,” Ventura Martínez warned in part of his manifesto. The Calagurritan chef also explained how “in La Rioja a lettuce multiplies almost 6-fold between the field and the table, the same as thistle, cabbages or broccoli; and the potatoes, which are multiplied by 5; products, by the way, that do not require industrial transformation for consumption.
Paniego spoke before in economic terms, pointing out that “the disappearance of the Rioja agricultural sector is no small feat, we are talking about 6% of the GDP of our community, more than double what the sector represents in Spain as a whole, and if we add “What wine tourism and the agri-food industry contribute is 18%.”
Angelines González, for her part, explained that “we want the benefit of the agricultural sector to come from the sale of its productions in the markets, not from aid, but we find ourselves with unfair competition from food coming from anywhere in the world, and that have been grown or raised without complying with the same strict standards that we have in the European Union” and denounced that “it cannot be that when our plums come, they bring them from Cambodia to lower prices.”
The event ended with the raffle of bags with local products, such as apples, pears, mushrooms, capers, cabbages… that had remained on display. «This is what we are going to stop eating the day there are no Riojan farmers. You can eat it but it will not have the same quality, it will be from outside and more expensive,” warned Jairo Morga, press officer for UAGR and winegrower.
