The European Green Deal is the European Union’s roadmap to make the EU economy sustainable by promoting the social, economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture and forestry.

Italy is the country with the healthiest and safest foods in the Old Continent since it has the highest percentages of products that according to the controls of the Food Safety Authority (Efsa) turn out to be absolutely free of residues, moreover it turns out to be the most attentive country to waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

As revealed by the report presented by the Fieragricola-Nomisma Observatory on the occasion of the presentation of the reference review for the agricultural sector, Italy pays for some structural gaps in the country – such as the shortage and management of water in some areas of the territory, in addition to soil erosion – and will have to assert its fungibility to contribute to the sustainable transition.

In the last 10 years the use of chemicals in Italian fields has decreased with peaks of 50% in favor of organic farming, the first in Europe for arable land and permanent crops.

“FROM FARM TO FORK” is the name of the strategy that concerns the agri-food sector and that is part of the communication, of the European Green Deal that indicates a series of objectives to which European agriculture must strive in the logic of building a circular economy based on a healthy, fair and environmentally friendly food system.

But the green sensitivity of Italian farmers and products is even more evident to the test of agropharmaceuticals and fertilizers. In fact, according to the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra), less and less use has been made of it in the last decade and consumption has often halved: this is the case with insecticides (from 1.2 kg of active ingredients per hectare to 0.6 kg), fungicides (-30%), herbicides (-20%), but also nitrogen (-25%), phosphoric anhydride (-36%), potassium oxide (-50%).