Green light for referendum against pesticides and other agrotoxics in Conegliano Valdobbiadene, historic home of prosecco. The Council of State finally dismisses the appeal brought by the agricultural confederations and producers’ consortia. No more poisons.
Conegliano, stop pesticides
In 2018, the citizens’ committee ‘Conegliano Without Pesticides’ initiated a referendum to ban the use of pesticides, herbicides and other poisons in the municipality.
Citizens were and are exasperated by the inordinate use of agrotoxics at prohibited times, including near homes and schools.
Residents, after filing hundreds of complaints, have joined the signature collection en masse. Which were submitted to Mayor Fabio Chies on 10/25/18 in support of the request to hold a referendum. (1)
Polluters’ resistance
The reaction of (non-organic) prosecco producers was not long in coming. An extraordinary appeal to the President of the Republic to prevent the referendum has been signed by Coldiretti, Confagricoltura and CIA of Treviso, as well as the two consortia for the protection of prosecco DOC and prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiadene.
The Presidency of the Republic delegated the evaluation to the State Council, which published the decision on 5/20/21. (2)
Council of State, the pronouncement
‘The plaintiffs’ They plead violation of the law, lack of jurisdiction and excess of power, given that the referendum aims to introduce a general ban on the use of synthetic plant protection products in the inter-municipal rural police regulations of the Municipality of Conegliano, intervening in matters of community and national competence; they add that the municipal regulations provide for the holding of referendums for matters of exclusive local competence’, reconstructs the Council of State document.
Polluters out of the game
On closer inspection, it is precisely the enemies of the referendum who are violating the rules of the game, and who should, if anything, have gone to the ordinary courts. Indeed, the Council of State has ruled as follows.
‘Administrative jurisprudence agrees that in disputes involving challenges to the constitutive measures of referendum procedures, whether positive or negative (for the promoters or those who oppose them), jurisdiction belongs to the ordinary courtsin that the promoters of the referendum act in the relevant proceedings on an equal footing with the bodies in charge of controlling the legality of the referendum request, which operate, like the promoting committee, to protect the general order and not a specific interest of the Public Administration’.
Green light for referendum
The road to the execution of the referendum in Conegliano is now paved, after the three-year delay caused by the resistance of agricultural representatives to this exercise in democracy.
The referendum may replicate the experience of the municipality of Malles, in the Vinschgau Valley (South Tyrol), which in 2017 banned the use of pesticides on apple trees within the municipality’s territory by a city referendum.
Pesticides, disease and dementia
The urgency of eliminating synthetic pesticides is widely shared in Europe.
Exposure to agrotoxin molecules is clearly linked to the onset of neurological diseases and DNA alterations. And it is no coincidence that the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is rising in the Veneto region, especially in the Treviso area, reports the Regional Epidemiological Service. (3)
Marta Strinati
Notes
1) Marta Strinati. Referendum against Prosecco pesticides. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade) 13.11.18 https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/referendum-contro-i-pesticidi-del-prosecco
(2) SEE ANNEX
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".