Farmers' Protest at the A1 Motorway Toll Booth in Santa Maria Capua Vetere

Farmers have set up a garrison outside the A1 motorway toll booth in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, protesting, as is happening all over Italy and the rest of Europe, against the crisis in the agricultural sector; there are over 200 with about seventy tractors. The farmers set off around 11 from the square of the Casal di Principe stadium, arriving in Santa Maria Capua Vetere after a march of about twenty kilometers; the association Altragricoltura Campania Nord organized it. Initially there were over thirty tractors, then along the way as many were added. The protesters asked for a meeting with the prefect of Caserta, Giuseppe Castaldo, to explain the reasons for the protest; the meeting will be held in the next few days. With that of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, there are two in Caserta, the garrisons made by farmers; since yesterday there has also been a garrison outside the toll booth. With today's march, farmers want to keep high attention on an international crisis that has deep roots and causes in Italy, a great country - says Gianni Fabbris of Altragricoltura - with a peasant tradition and a huge agri-food heritage founded on work from the earth and the sea and on the great diversity of its cultural and environmental systems. The strong risk - he adds - is that Italy could become a speculative commercial platform in which Made in Italy becomes a business opportunity for financial speculation. Now all the knots come to the comb and the alibis fall. Farmers, including many young people who claim the right to the future, take to the streets simply because they have no alternatives. Yesterday there was also a march of tractors that from Teano reached Capua, traveling the Appia state road. There are about two hundred tractors marching from Benevento to the Valle Telesina, the heart of Sannita viticulture, along the SS 372 'Telesina', which connects the Tyrrhenian with the Adriatic. The procession of vehicles, which grows along the route, started from the Rotonda dei Pentri of the Sannita capital, for four days the headquarters of the protesters' garrison, to head, after having traveled about 40 kilometers, to Telese Terme where - according to the plan agreed with the Questura of Benevento - the tractors will exit and then re-enter and travel the road backwards to reach Benevento again. At the moment no incidents are reported while there are disruptions to road traffic for which alternative routes have been planned. Contrary to what one might imagine, despite the inconvenience for motorists, the protesters are finding solidarity and understanding for the farmers engaged in a battle that is not only of the agricultural world but of all Italians, as some elderly people who wanted to attend the parade of tractors claim.