Quick Take — Italy stands out among the ‘most organic’ countries in Europe with 2.3 million hectares the Italian organic area represents 19.8% of the total agricultural area

This means that, thanks to organic farming, one fifth of Italian farmland is free of pesticides . In essence , organic is a niche market – which for various reasons has not been able to express its full potential – for example, the % of consumption in France is almost double (5.6%) that of Italy – but which has a strong positive impact on Italy’s environment and thus also on our health.

Guido Venosta Foundation

P.S.: Italy ranks third for organic farmland only after France (2.9 million hectares) and Spain (2.7 million hectares)

Quick Take — COP 16: Pharma and agritech groups against biodiversity tax at UN summit

Negotiators are discussing an agreement at the ongoing COP16 UN biodiversity summit in Colombia on payment for the use of data known as digital sequence information (DSI), which is heavily used by manufacturers of drugs and agricultural products. Companies ranging from AstraZeneca and GSK to Bayer access the information mostly for free, but nations agreed at the last COP15 summit to set up a multilateral fund for ‘benefit sharing’ from its use. The most controversial option, put forward by a group of African nations, would impose a levy of 1% of the retail value of all products made with ISD. The German pharmaceutical and agricultural conglomerate Bayer has argued that the additional cost to companies could translate into higher prices for food and other products