(by Filippo Moreschi, lawyer and AIDR member) In a summary historical glance it is the city, and not the countryside, the place of the development of science and technology.
The countryside, with the due exceptions, is the place of slowness, of tradition, but also often of the delay in the development and application of new technologies. The contribution of many non-innovative agricultural practices to the pollution of environmental matrices and to soil consumption is now certain.
So much so that the World Economic Forum, in an article published on 10 February, underlines that it is precisely emissions from agriculture that threaten the achievement of the objectives of the Paris agreement on climate.
Now, in the digital age and the great environmental challenges, this reading seems to be reversing.
Is it possible today to think of rural areas as advanced sentinels of digital development and environmental protection?
More than one sign seems to suggest an affirmative answer to this question.
A recent ruling by the Council of State - published last December - affirmed the principle that even the integrated environmental authorization of a landfill for special non-hazardous waste must deal with the existence, in the area of settlement, of a special area wine vocation (in the specific case, the DOC of the “Cacc'e mmitte” of Lucera). The basis of the ruling, according to the Judges of Palazzo Spada, is the rule of the Special Waste Management Plan of Puglia which proclaims the incompatibility between these plants and the valuable agricultural areas, identified by the production regulations.
Similar forecasts, however, can be found in other Regional Waste Management Plans, such as the Tuscan one, adopted in 2014 and integrated with Regional Council resolution no. 55/2017.
Furthermore, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, at the beginning of 2020, regarding the Environmental Impact Assessment of the works for the high-speed line on the Milan-Verona section, censured the non-compliance with the prescriptions dictated by the CIPE which required the prior stipulation of a protocol in agreement with the main producers' organizations of the DOC wine-growing area involved in a section of the works. The protocol, from the point of view of the administrative judges, had to concern both the simple determination of compensation for expropriation of land and, above all, the weighting of the various interests involved in carrying out the work. The Court motivates this decision by referring expressly to the provision of art. 1 of Law 238/2016 (the so-called “Consolidated Text” of Wine) which defines the viticultural territories as “national cultural heritage to be protected and enhanced in the aspects of social, economic, productive, environmental and cultural sustainability”.
Therefore, in the awareness of the legislator (national and regional) and in consideration of the jurisprudence, the principle seems to be affirmed that the areas from which valuable agricultural products derive, especially if geographically delimited by the production regulations of PDO or PGI products, must receive protection. enhanced, because it is an expression of economic, productive, social, environmental and cultural values.
The result is no different considering the particular attention paid by the legislator to the ZEA, the Environmental Economic Zones, established with the Decree Law 111/2019. They coincide with the territory of the national parks and have the purpose of "encouraging investments in these areas aimed at combating climate change, energy efficiency, the circular economy, the protection of biodiversity and social and territorial cohesion and to support active citizenship of those who reside there ".
In this perspective, the ZEAs will have to gradually become territories where it will be convenient to invest, live, work, live, travel, and this through tax relief, economic advantages and administrative facilities.
The recent "transitional" Regulation, which dictates the provisions relating to support from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) in the years 2021 and 2022 (Reg Ue 2020/2220 of 23 / 12/2020), allocates large percentages of the structural funds allocated in the agricultural sector to the economic and social development of rural areas and to the resilient, sustainable and digital economic recovery, through short supply chains and local markets, of smart agriculture; pushes for the use of renewable energies and forms of circular economy; finances access to high quality information and communication technologies in rural areas (Article 7 (4) and (5)).
These guidelines are consistent with the European Commission document relating to the development of the new Community Agricultural Policy entitled "List of potential AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES that ECO-SCHEMES could support", published in January this year and included in the objectives of the EU Green Deal. .
Among the various purposes indicated in the document, many of which are linked to sustainability, the European Union recognizes the need to restore at least 2030% of the agricultural area to characters of high landscape diversity by 10.
According to the Commission, this must be done through good practices, many of which are based on new technologies and precision agriculture, in order to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources, pesticides and the pollution of water, air and soil and encourage circular agriculture.
There is therefore a decisive convergence of attention and programs: new technologies must favor the best agriculture in order to better protect and conserve rural areas, their biodiversity, their economy and the landscape and environmental quality of the places, associating them with the production of quality, demographic and economic development and tourism. A new centrality of the agricultural sector determined by the growing awareness of its decisiveness for food security, the fight against climate change, sustainable development.