The Community of Farmers and Ranchers of Almendralejo (Clygal) has launched an "urgent" call directed both at the entire rural environment and at the general public to join the large tractor demonstration planned for next Wednesday, October 28, in Madrid, as well as the subsequent camping promoted by APAG Extremadura ASAJA in front of the Ministry of Agriculture, which will last until November 12, on the eve of the start of the electoral campaign.
With this explicit support, the agricultural organization aligns itself with the tractor demonstration in Madrid called jointly by APAG Extremadura ASAJA, COAG, and La Unión in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, a protest that will intensify with a permanent concentration promoted by ASAJA in "sign of resistance."
Under the slogan "Feeding must provide to live," the primary sector wants to focus on what they consider the greatest agricultural crisis of the 21st century, with farming and ranching families in a situation of total defenselessness and economic suffocation, working from dawn to dusk knowing that, at the end of the day, they only accumulate losses.
CLYGAL again denounces that the costs of basic inputs have become "completely unmanageable" and that labor costs have "soared," while the purchasing positions and industries "abuse their position by systematically imposing and agreeing on lower prices." As "dramatic examples" of this "imbalance," it cites the value of grapes and olives, whose selling prices are "well below the actual production costs," as detailed by the agricultural organization in a press release.
To this critical situation is added the "failure" in the application of the Food Chain Law, which "continues to be effectively unfulfilled" in the field, leaving the producer "unprotected against the large distribution chains."
The agricultural sector also insists on "fierce unfair competition" resulting from the "massive and uncontrolled" entry of products from third countries outside the EU, which "are not required to meet the same fiscal, environmental, or control guidelines" as community producers, "bursting the domestic market and destroying the livelihood of local farms."
In light of this situation, farmers and ranchers demand the "immediate" implementation of mirror clauses as an "unavoidable measure" to ensure the survival of the countryside.
From CLYGAL it is emphasized that this crisis does not only hit farmers and ranchers, but "threatens the social and economic fabric of the entire rural world."
They recall that when the primary sector, which acts as the "undisputed economic engine" of the Tierra de Barros region, collapses, it generates a "domino effect that inevitably drags down small commerce, food, hospitality, leisure, and local investment."
Except for purely transforming industries that "benefit from the devaluation of the raw material, the agrarian crisis directly bleeds the vast majority of the citizenry."
For this reason, CLYGAL emphasizes that going to Madrid on the 28th is "a duty of all neighbors to defend rural towns, their jobs, and the future of the families that feed us," and concludes by reminding that interested individuals in traveling by bus to the capital of Spain to participate in the mobilizations can register until this Tuesday, October 27, at the offices of the Community of Laborers.