CiU and ERC agree on passage of state-style farm laws

  • The CUP asks for a law that guarantees fair farm prices

VilaWeb
ACN
10.07.2014 - 10:28

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CiU and ERC agreed yesterday to present a group of state-style farm laws. Specifically, the laws will regulate form contracts, interprofessionals, associations and groups of producers and also the update of regulations on wholesale markets and other mechanisms that ensure market transparency. It’s one of the resolutions that CiU and ERC presented together in the plenary dedicated to agriculture.

They also agreed that in a year they would pass the law of rural development, which must contain the principles of the strategic plan to support agriculture and food production (PENSAA) and to create a committee to study GMOs.

Another CiU and ERC joint resolution asks the government to include all of the pending payments from the rural development plan of 2007-2013—which has been extended to 2015—in the 2015 budget. If these items are not included in the budget, European funding will be lost.

In addition, they also approved for the following period of sessions a mechanism by which farmers can have a stable income, that is, that they have a guaranteed fund in the event of bad weather or other factors.

With respect to the recent spate of robberies in rural areas, CiU and ERC lean towards continuing to direct the local police forces to collect testimony that reflects not only the value of the robbery itself but also the money that the farmer will not be able to earn because of the robbery, the cost of lost opportunity.

Another resolution is to demand that the four provincial representative chambers of the rural community (which date from the Franco era) be dissolved, and that their goods, rights, and patrimony be transferred to the Fundació de la Pagesia de Catalunya [Catalonia Farmers Foundation].

CiU and ERC ask the government to act in such a way to expand the presence in Catalonia of European institutions in the agrofood sector and that they maintain joint action with the European Parliament.

The CUP asks for a law that would protect producers and guarantee fair farm prices

The CUP demanded the passage during this legislature of regulations related to required contracts between producers and distributors that would protect the producers from the “abuses” of the distributors and that would guarantee fair prices both in the country (for farmers) and in the city (for consumers). It also asked that the government keep an eye on and fine fraud in the agrofood chain, like for example the speculative imposition of below cost pricing. Another resolution would ask that GMOs be prohibited starting in 2015.

ICV-EUiA asks for a committee to study GMOs
ICV-EUiA, in an appeal for product quality, wants a committee to be created to study GMOs, which would be in charge of evaluating if they need to be prohibited from crops like in other European countries. They also demand that the Catalan Government and the Catalan public sector prioritize the acquisition of locally grown agrofood products. ICV-EUiA defends locally grown products and asks the administration to pay them special attention, in order to promote the Catalan agrofood industry and also for environmental reasons.

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