Genoma Laboratorio attended the Conference on Soil Health and Sustainability in the Agricultural Sector last Wednesday, December 13, represented by founding partner Alfonso Lucas.
The event, held at the Ricote Valley Hub, was attended by a large audience, and among the speakers who participated, Manuel Pimentel, former Minister of Labor and currently a farmer, rancher, editor, novelist, and popularizer, among other cultural and educational activities, was a notable presence.
During his speech, he highlighted the current prevailing consumer sentiment, which is that we want safe, healthy, abundant, and affordable food, but we don't want agriculture, livestock, or fishing.
We consider these activities to be polluting and destructive to the environment, and paradoxically, for example, we consider the massive installation of solar plants to be environmentally friendly. They clean the soil of weeds using herbicides, apply concrete by the ton, and cover the entire surface with iron and glass, turning the area into something unnatural, no matter how sustainable the energy they produce.
This dual way of thinking and acting is leading to a gradual reduction in cultivated land, thus changing the law of supply and demand. If there isn't enough production, due to farmers abandoning or going bankrupt, supply declines and prices rise.
His hypothesis is that the situation will continue to evolve in this direction, until food becomes a luxury item and only an elite can afford it.
That's it the revenge of the countryside: You forget me, you despise me, and there you have the consequences: prices unattainable for the majority.
Despite everything, he believes we are at the right time for things to change, and for us to begin to shift our perspective on the countryside, livestock, and fishing.
He concluded that we must evaluate whether things are really as we imagine them to be, or as they should be, and restore trust in farmers, ranchers, and fishermen, since they work to feed their children, and not only that, but everyone else's children as well.
Let us not forget this, because if we do, we will pay dearly for forgetting.
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