In Italy, according to the Banca dati nazionale dell'anagrafe zootecnica, there are almost 400,000 livestock farms, and those with the largest numbers of animals — that is, intensive ones — are found mostly in four regions: Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia Romagna. In particular, Lombardy holds two records: it is the region with the highest number of cattle (we are talking about 1.5 million animals and fifteen thousand farms) and of pigs (over four million, around half the national total). The other regions are no less significant, and in particular Veneto is the region with the highest number of chickens and hens, around 39 million, followed by Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Piedmont.

As well as being the part of Italy where the greatest concentration of livestock farms is found, the Po Valley is also the most polluted area in Europe — and not by coincidence. Among the cities most affected by air pollution are Milan, Turin, Asti, Modena, Padua and Venice, with levels of PM10, PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide well beyond legal limits and, unsurprisingly, a high rate of premature deaths caused precisely by the quality of the air breathed there. In Europe, Italy holds the record for annual deaths attributable to PM2.5: 52,000 people, equal to one fifth of all those recorded across the European continent.

Emissions linked to intensive livestock farming

In the face of this data, in its recent report, Legambiente proposes several areas of action, including: the transition from Ztl (limited traffic zones) to Zez (zero-emission zones), the strengthening of public transport, and the creation of cycling routes. In addition to these very useful and desirable initiatives, Essere Animali believes it is of fundamental importance to pursue the gradual abandonment of intensive livestock farming systems — places that are cruel to animals, highly damaging to the environment and dangerous to public health. Intensive livestock farming, in fact, emits two thirds of national ammonia emissions and is the second leading cause of fine particulate matter formation in Italy.

Despite this, Italian intensive livestock farms receive millions of euros every year in CAP subsidies, the funding provided by the European Common Agricultural Policy. A double injustice, when we consider the enormous cost that the public health system already has to bear in caring for those who fall ill precisely because of the emissions coming from those very same farms. If we want to combat air pollution and save the lives of thousands of people every year, we cannot continue to channel funding into an industry that not only harms us, but damages the environment and causes the suffering of millions and millions of sentient beings, condemned to an unbearable existence.