An unprecedented initiative, an appeal launched by 125 European organizations (breeders, producers, industrialists, professional and inter-professional organizations, consortia, scholars and academics): "Feeding Europe: the importance of animal proteins", is the title of a real manifesto addressed to EU policy makers (see attachment with the full text). The text was promoted above all by Clitravi, the European association of producers, and the Italian Carni Sostenibili.

The requests? In short:

- Develop a holistic EU food strategy, based on the experimental scientific method, integrating both crops and livestock and ensuring fair treatment for all agricultural sectors.

- Support science-based environmental assessments that consider the entire life cycle of food products, avoiding misleading interpretations that unfairly penalize livestock farming, potentially encouraging imports and thus increasing emissions.

- Support scientifically based nutritional assessments that confirm the importance of animal-source foods for human health, especially for vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly and people with nutritional deficiencies.

The call also warns of the unintended consequences of policies that penalise animal protein, noting that a reduction in EU production would inevitably increase import dependency, exacerbate global emissions and threaten the livelihoods of millions of EU farmers and processors.

Many Italian entities support the appeal, such as Assica, the association that brings together producers of cured meats and pork.

“We wanted to highlight the essential role that the livestock sector plays in ensuring food security, nutritional balance, rural vitality and environmental sustainability within the European Union, as well as the fundamental complementarity between agriculture and livestock farming. We call on the European Commission to support diversity in EU agricultural production, including livestock farming, mixed farming and sustainable intensification methods that optimise resource efficiency without compromising food security or rural livelihoods”, said Assica President Lorenzo Beretta.

“With this initiative, our association and its partners who signed the appeal reaffirm their commitment to a future in which agro-industry is productive and sustainable and in which European citizens have access to healthy and balanced diets, based on scientific evidence and economic realism”, concluded Beretta.