The agri-food company is committed to promoting sustainability

The coronavirus pandemic has been raging for two years, and with force, the arguments in favor of sustainability and companies and municipalities gather the conclusions, but not without putting some points first. Because convincing citizens is not easy, and economic viability cannot be lost by guaranteeing sustainable objectives.

Here are some ideas that remained as sediment in Valencia after last Wednesday’s celebration of the conference on resilient sustainability in the Valencian Community. Alliances as a driver of sustainable development, an event promoted by La Vanguardia and Chairman of Kiwa University Polytechnic Valencia (UPV).

“Sustainability is about local produce”

The platform for discussion was the Technical High School of Agronomic Engineering and the Natural Environment. Led by the La Vanguardia Envoy to the Valencian Community, Salvador Enguix, the event was opened by the president of the Valenciana Generalitat, Ximo Puig, and the rector of the UPV, José E. Capilla Romà, who opened the event. “Universities have a fundamental role to play in achieving the millennium goals,” said Comptroller Capilla, who has already stated that he has accepted that many ideas will be put to the conference, but “we have no solutions or answers to that. many questions. “

At the heart of the meeting was the common conversation and search for a solution to the new challenges, in which Kiwa Spain director general Juan Cardona also participated; and director general of People are Science, Rosa Valenzuela. Cardona pointed out that “betting on sustainability is more about thinking of local produce, being concerned about eating habits education and achieving our well – being and universality without leaving home”, although he pointed to the problem: how much does it cost. be sustainable? ”, he asked himself, an introduction to the topic that the second table would focus on the day. For its part, Valenzuela pointed out that “what is undefined cannot be measured” and said that it is “very important” to redesign and transform municipalities from the generation of good diagnosis, a job in which its pilot project entity operates. with the Diputación de Castellón and various municipalities to design a methodology that measures sustainability in different areas.

The best university in Spain

The president of the Valenciana Generalitat, Ximo Puig, praised the excellence of the academic center that acted as host, because, as this newspaper published, it was a key element in attracting the future gigafactory Seat-Volkswagen battery installation to the. Valencian community, in Sagunt town.

“This is not the time to implement more fees or more taxes”

“This is the best university in Spain. Among the more than 100 items of value when deciding on the gigafactory, one of these was related to education and

human resources and then the location of the Politècnica was very important ”, said Puig. The second part of the event sought to respond to how much it costs to be sustainable, an issue of particular concern to the business community, which is exacerbated in recent months by the consequences of the pandemic and the high cost of raw material.

In general, participants appreciated the importance of public-private partnerships in delivering the SDGs and the 2030-2050 Agenda, but comments depend on the scope of work. So from the productive sectors they look closely at the regulations and, above all, at the barriers set by Europe and its desire for neutral emissions. For example, businessman Rafael Juan, president of the Valentia Community Agri-Food Business Federation, was adamant that “he is not the one to impose more or more tax rates. It is possible to continue to bet on sustainability, but not at extra rates as the sector loses competitiveness ”.

For his part, Cristóbal Aguado, president of the Valencian Farmers’ Association, also spoke, calling for “the sustainable goal to be something agreed, discussed and established”, as it requires “deeper reflection”. Aguado recalled, always clear in his unambiguous parliaments, that the cost to the primary sector has averaged 30% over the past year and forces the farmer to “smart plan” on sustainability applications, with direct reference to European regulations.

The agri-food sector

The director of the Catalan Council for Integrated Sustainable Production, Maite Ros, also took part in this second joint phase, saying that the bureaucracy is “catastrophic” for the agri – food sector. Ross asserted that “the more damage it does, and the more for the farmer, the lower the link in the chain, the greater the effect”. Aguado supported the argument by recalling that “in agriculture, bureaucracy eats us up and is a real insult that is destroying farmer’s professionalism and endangering the viability of the sector.”

Finally, Ricardo Fernández Casal, Director of Quality and Sustainable Development at Carrefour Spain, announced “we need to relax regulation” in this matter. With regard to measuring sustainability, he considered it positive to equip himself with tools and resources “to meet the SDGs in a quantitative manner”.

“The goal of sustainability must be something agreed and discussed”

Similarly, the manager increased the number of Carrefour SME suppliers to 950, from which they purchase more than 480,000 tonnes of products, both in the countryside and in the Spanish Sea. “We need to work together between producers and distributors, because we are both the engine of the economy,” he said.

It is also an exercise to educate the eventual citizen in the new ‘green’ scenario, as demonstrated by all participants in the first dialogue entitled The challenge of measurement. The focus here is on the objectives that influence municipalities, from a Valencian perspective, with particular reference to the difficulties of accessing Next Generation European funds. And the first one that emerged was how to train sustainability while taking “resistance” into account.

city ​​comfort

This is how Alzira’s mayor Diego Gómez defined them, who explained that the vision of cities, in terms of urban mobility, must change abruptly because they meet the criteria established in the last century. “Our cities were designed and created in the seventies for cars and it is very complicated to make that change, but it is necessary. It is true that there is resistance

Those changes even have those who tell you ‘this is the death of my business’, but then they add good value ”, said the mayor of La Ribera Alta. Another example is that given by Merche Galí, mayor of Almassora, who explained that “we have built a bicycle lane with European funds and, at first, that was the cause of fighting among the neighbors because we were getting rid of parking spaces. I think in this paradigm shift, the escort of citizens is still lacking, not going at the same pace as the Administration “, explained Julia Company, director general of the Valencian Institute for Competitiveness, which” has the difficulty most a. to find the comfort of the citizens, who must be aware that everyone’s commitment is required to be more sustainable ”.

local trade

In an administrative key, the president of the Diputación de Castellón, José Martí, said, “it would not be unreasonable for the new mobility to mean that the Next Generation would also come to repair roads, because there are still towns. where it lacks much ”. In fact, the percentage of roads managed by provincial administrations was estimated at 45%.

Merche Galí supported the same idea, defending that “she has lost some of the funds that could be allocated to works, or to our businesses so that they can advance in competitiveness.”

He thought: “We have celebrated the arrival of Amazon to Onda in Castellón, but I have only seen piles of laugh boxes in the garbage, how much waste do we generate?

I think we have not thought about what we would save if we bought this from local businesses. “So he opened the door to rethink consumer habits that, in cities like Almassora, are conditional on especially at its geographical location: near Castellón de la Plana, the provincial capital, and near Vila-real, the second most populous city. he.

Transport

For this reason, Júlia Company recalled that transport is one of the “most polluting” sectors and argued that “if we choose local trade, we must provide it with tools. Business is a company and its competitiveness needs to be improved ”, said the leader of the Valencian Institute for Competitiveness.

“In this paradigm there is still a lack of citizen escort”

On the energy crisis, speakers explained some of the projects in their municipalities, such as the president of Castellón Provincial Council noting that 70 municipalities are undergoing an energy transition; in Almassora they changed all the lighting to save and Alzira’s mayor focused on the local energy communities, with just one: “Energy transfer cannot break the ecological transition. We need to legislate, standardize, but the potential is that, with planting, I do not know how many photovoltaic plants, we cancel the garden ”. Finally, in the case of the Julia Company, the fight against climate must also be the fight against climate change.

The event was closed by Alberto San Bautista, director of the Kiwa Chair and the Technical High School of Agricultural and Natural Environmental Engineering of the UPV.