"Shepherds betrayed by the milk masters" : the meaning of the document released a few days after the vote of the members of the Pecorino Romano consortium that left out of the production specifications the obligation to use Sardinian breed sheep (and other well-defined breeds, which are already authorized in Lazio and Tuscany) and the exclusion, consequently, of French and Israeli ones. A crucial game for the Sardinian countryside, which is illustrated - with very harsh criticism - in the note signed by the shepherds without flags Gianuario Falchi, Nenneddu Sanna, Mario Carai and Fabio Pisu, among the protagonists of the 2019 milk revolt.

A clarification is necessary: it is called "Roman" but it is almost entirely Sardinian. And it is the pecorino that is exported all over the world, the one that mostly determines the price of milk on the island. It is a Dop (Protected Designation of Origin) product and its production must take place in compliance with certain requirements: those set out in the specifications. On which a vote had already been held a few years ago, when the requirement that the sheep to be milked belong to certain "native" breeds was imposed. With the new vote on December 2, in Macomer, the "breed" was left out and to produce pecorino romano it is sufficient that the sheep are raised in certain "areas". Sardinia is included, obviously. The concern of the shepherds who signed the document is one: someone (many?) could "import" sheep from other territories, make them live in Sardinia, raise them intensively to increase milk production - taking advantage of the fact that the price is now high - and what would be lost, is the fear, would be precisely the characteristics of the product. In addition to the added value, resulting in a drop in price due to increased production.

The "milk lords", according to the shepherds' note, did not want to submit "to those rules that a serious production specification would have imposed on them". The document rails against "the greed of industrialists that had already emerged in the exhausting negotiations we had to face during the milk protest of 2019", but expresses amazement at "the naivety of some cooperative presidents, who under who knows what pressure were convinced to take a position that can only be the product of ignorance".

"We had announced," it reads, "that revoting on the point regarding the use of milk to produce Pecorino Romano Dop cheese from sheep belonging to the native breeds of the production areas (Sardinia, Lazio and the province of Grossetto) would have been against the rules, as that point had already been voted on and approved in a previous assembly of the consortium with a majority of 90% and had been endorsed by the then Councilor for Agriculture of the Sardinia region first and then by the ministry." from Rome they had "even suggested a 7-year delay, following the advice of Agris technicians, to give time to companies that today breed exogenous breeds or their crosses, in case they wanted to continue to be part of the Dop, before the restrictions were put in place."

"We have understood well," the document continues, "that the price of cheese stabilized at these levels does not make those who market the cheese happy and therefore are willing to put the credibility of the Pecorino Romano DOP at stake, focusing on the quantity that could be obtained with intensive farming, not caring at all about ruining all the good things our ancestors have built."

Shepherds without flags launch two appeals. The first to colleagues who deliver milk to cooperatives, so that they «keep the presidents or their delegates at bay, who must report to the assembly the will that was expressed in the votes held in the individual cooperatives, as happened in 2021: on that occasion, the subsequent vote of the consortium had ensured that the version of the native breeds reached the majority of 90%».

The second appeal is for the President of the Region, Alessandra Todde: «She has the power of veto over what the president of the consortium is illegitimately», they claim, «carrying forward: the future of the most strategic sector of the regional economy is at stake».

Enrico Fresu

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