The citizen platforms against macro farms have not given the Government of Castilla-La Mancha a single day of respite when the moratorium that stopped the installation of these agricultural farms ended. And they did it with a very special protest: with a procession of the ‘big shit’, several allusions to the smells and waste of animals and also to the rhythm of Christmas carols. “Page, Page, Page, how happy he is. With macro farms and biogas,” sang the dozens of people who gathered this Thursday at the doors of the Fuensalida Palace, headquarters of the Castilian-La Mancha Government, to the rhythm of the ‘Marimorena’.
Representatives of towns throughout the region, from Porzuna to Fuentealbilla, have attended the original call to show their rejection of this industrial model, which not only includes livestock macro farms, but also the biogas plants that are proposed in the region. “Putting a macro farm in our town will bring us ruin,” says César Garrido, who arrives from the municipality of El Robledo, in Ciudad Real.
“We come to tell Mr. Page that this shit, this big screw-up that they are doing, that they rectify it, that they still have time, that the people do not want it and cannot do something against the people,” explained Paciencia Talaya Escribano, of the Stop Macrogranjas Quintanar del Rey Platform and part of the Stop Ganadería Industrial Castilla-La Mancha Board. Talaya also criticized that the slurry management decree approved in the last Government Council of 2024 is a “manifest deception.” “They have made a law tailored to large livestock farmers,” said the spokesperson.
For this reason, they have asked that the mistake be “rectified,” which was later carried out in procession several times in front of the government headquarters. “Page, pay attention, La Mancha is not for sale,” “We want pine, not pig shit,” chanted the residents of several towns in the region.
People of all ages attended the event, including Nora, 14 years old, who came from Retamoso de la Jara, in Toledo, with her father. He explains that in his town there are already water problems, “it always happens in the summer,” and that is why he is against this type of installation. “Also because of the smell,” he asserts, “I don’t want my town to smell bad.”
Juli and her friends have come from Quintanar del Rey, in Cuenca. “They want to build a macro farm very close to the town, two kilometers away,” he explains. Indeed, the town has been fighting for years to prevent the installation from being carried out in the municipality. They fear water contamination and odors. “The macro farm they want to build in my town is 800 meters from the water well that supplies the town,” he highlights. “And it most likely will arrive.” That is why they have decided to attend the concentration.
“No one has told us anything, no consultation has been promoted, nothing. Everything has been done in secret, they took advantage of the pandemic to do it and it is almost done,” he laments. The plan is for about 2,000 pig heads to arrive in the town, the neighbors say.
Stop Ganadería Industrial warns that they fear that more than 60 licenses that were paralyzed by the moratorium will be reactivated, and they show their distrust of the biomethanation plan that they highlight includes more than 200 biogas plants in the region. “Why are they going to put two macro biogas plants in Campo de Criptana, where there are no intensive pig farms? Is there going to be a call effect for intensive livestock farming and more pig macro farms?” Talaya questioned.
To end the protest, they read a letter – in giant format – addressed to Emiliano García-Page. “We have seen how year after year you turned a deaf ear to our protests and pollution warnings. We have seen how you gave impetus to a sector that plunders the water of our towns, how you declared it a strategic sector, how you rubbed shoulders with the big businessmen of meat, energy, waste, how you let the favorable winds push you in your address,” they read.
“Instead of addressing it, you have given a voice to those who wanted to turn shit into money, even if to do so you had to favor a shitty industry that produces more shit. We have come because you have taken us for fools and because you believe that power gives you the right to continue plundering and contaminating us,” they concluded.
Source: www.eldiario.es
