Article by REAS Euskadi

On October 13th, David González from Sustraiak Habitat Design Koop, on behalf of REAS Euskadi, appeared before the Economic Development and Innovation Commission of the Basque Parliament to make contributions to the Basque Rural Development Bill.

In a context in which we are beginning to feel the first impacts of the clash of our civilisation against the planetary limits, we recognise the urgent need to relocate basic productive activities such as food. Even more so in the urban environment.

The current model of food production is unsustainable. It generates serious impacts on ecosystems, on communities, soil degradation and is one of the main responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and therefore for climate change. Furthermore, its enormous dependence on fossil fuels puts the food security of our societies at risk, as is being demonstrated by the closure of chemical fertiliser production plants.

The transition to agro-ecological models must take place as soon as possible and must be planned, linking local production and consumption through public policies. We need a rural development model that is capable of adapting to the biophysical limits of the bioregion where it is developed, based on the principles and practices of the Social and Solidarity Economy and that is effective in the fight against climate change. In short, we need a new model based on Agroecological Land Management.

You can watch the video of the hearing and this page has links to the different interventions in the Commission (in Basque and Spanish).