"We demonstrate how sustainable livestock farming and our producers are part of the solution to climate change"

As president of the World Sustainable Livestock Association, How would you define the current moment of the work that our farmers are doing to be much more sustainable??

Our ranchers are today an example of the recovery of native breeds associated with a livestock system.,“the extensive” that is, definitely, one of the most sustainable and friendly models that exist.

Churra or merino ranchers continue to use ancestral soil management practices, like transhumance or transterminance, therefore generating livestock that sequesters carbon, recovers grasslands and maintains natural biodiversity; This allows regions such as Castilla y León or Extremadura to be Co2 sink regions and considered the green lung of Europe..

They are increasingly aware of and adapt to resilient systems that combine two important variables, the recovery of a pastoral culture associated with native breeds today widespread throughout the world, Spanish genetic heritage like Churra, and the inclusion of rational grazing systems, today scientifically known to be essential for the mitigation of climate change. We also know that there is still a lot of work to be done., to be visualized but today Spanish livestock farming is 100×100 sustainable and that is committed to positive production models for the environment.

How head of WAGGGS, What is the common denominator that you find in other parts of the world with respect to agriculture and livestock??

The common denominator is that livestock farming around the world today is being sadly questioned and attacked without scientific rigor.. Thousands of families that produce meat are attacked, lanas, queso, milk of magnificent quality, that meet the highest health requirements and that, besides, set population, they take care of the fields, the races, generate living soils and are, in addition, the basis for every society to progress,"since if the field does not produce the city does not eat".

Producers around the world are questioned by animal and environmental groups, without scientific basis. There is a true manipulation that affects a group of worthy people who give their best so that food reaches the tables of the entire society and also arrives in an accessible way..

From the World Sustainable Livestock Association, Our work consists of developing, together with universities around the world,. Real reports that demonstrate how sustainable livestock farming and our producers are part of the solution to climate change, demonstrate how animal protein is essential and there is no justification to demonize it and also return that prestige and dignity to the Rancher wherever it is attacked.

In summary, Our work consists of making visible and supporting governments and producers to understand how sustainable livestock farming is the basis of a greener world with more natural resources., that allow us to leave a better world for our children.

Only the 30% of EU farms are managed by women, How do you think this evolution is occurring??

These data are terrible at EU level, but notice that in Spain the data is much more bitter. In Spain, almost five million women live in rural areas, what represents the 15% of the Spanish population, and from these if we go to the data of owners of livestock farms in the section of 35 a 44 years, we have to there is 150.000 male farm managers versus 20.000 women farm owners. If we also go to Women owners of livestock farms of genetic value registered in genetic books, The data even more strongly demonstrates this gap..

There is still a lot of work to attract and make young people understand that sheep farming is not a profession of the past.. Regenerative livestock, working with pure breeds is, definitely, something that little by little is exciting young people, but they need a rural world with services and equal opportunities that people who live in cities have..

To be a woman or man in a rural world today is to live in great inequality, Fathers and mothers in cities have many more facilities, educational, of activities and reconciliation between family and work, and that is something that must be improved if we want children, women and families in the towns that, besides, perform important tasks in livestock.

What do rural women contribute to the rural world and its entire development??

Women ranchers play a vital role in the world and in the rural economy, in both developing and developed countries. Your participation in the agricultural sector is of vital importance, well they contribute, to a large extent, to the eradication of poverty and hunger, access to universal education, as well as the promotion of sustainable development all linked to food security.

From a professional point of view there are magnificent livestock farms, veterinary, farm managers with brilliant projects. Rural women are key agents in achieving economic changes, environmental and social necessary for the development, but, sometimes, There is limited access to finance and training, without a doubt, hinder your progress, these being some of the challenges they encounter. But I hope that little by little women will begin to manage farms and increasingly participate in livestock projects of genetic value., with breeds such as the Churra or the Merino.

«Society must understand that in the towns there is another part of society that complements that of the cities and that a world is formed between the two and that they must go hand in hand , since we are obliged to understand each other"

Do you think that the rural gap between the countryside and the city has been reduced due to Covid19? Do our young people have real opportunities to stay in their land and develop their lives there??

It seems that Covid revealed the importance of the livestock sector, and he also came to value life in the towns, security, the quality of life and the possibility of undertaking life projects in the towns, when food and freedom were questioned by this pandemic.

Today the War in Ukraine once again conditions the life of the sector with prices that make activity impossible and where cities have once again recognized the importance of producers, the empty milk shelves, meats and products from the countryside has once again highlighted the importance of those who work in the rural world and strive to generate quality food.

The gap between countryside and city or between urban and rural is a totally wrong confrontation.. Society must understand that in towns there is another part of society that complements that of cities and that a world is formed between the two and that they must go hand in hand. , since we are obliged to understand each other. If the countryside suffers for the city and vice versa, Therefore, policies must be used with greater enthusiasm and dedication in rural environments., promote those real opportunities that make life in the towns attractive to young people and also profitable.

I believe that at this point no one can doubt how essential livestock and agricultural activity is for the subsistence of the entire society..

Based on the events of the rural community of Spain that today is the world epicenter of attacks on the sector, What advice would you send to the rest of the producers in the world?, to governments and large organizations like WHO, la HIM , FAO , etc.?

I believe that today more than ever, governments and world organizations must lead food security and nature protection policies based on scientific rigor and where producers are the basis of these policies..

From the beginning, it has been the ranchers who have protected, lived and cared for nature and also fed the world. It cannot be that we now listen to animal or environmental organizations that seek to remove the flag of sustainability from those who really make their lives a friendly productive model that protects the natural environment., with studies without any rigor, They blame livestock farming, for example, for contaminating and trying to limit this activity., But no one talks, for example, about “stopping producing vehicles.” We live in a society of bad information and the entities and governments of the world cannot allow more attacks on the sustainable livestock sector..

Note that Monfragüe Park itself, Today considered the natural jewel of Extremadura, It is undoubtedly an environment created by human activities. Its excessive protectionism today, its limitations of rational management for livestock, for example, It will mean over time that this natural jewel disappears and like this we can give thousands of examples. Natural parks that burn every year because there are no longer sheep or goats to take advantage of them, Sustainability and compatibility of human activities in rural areas is the basis for it to remain alive..

This year in CH35 there will be twinning with the Merino Breed… tell us about the Merino J Livestock. Ortiz.

I grew up in Castilla watching churras and merinos and for us, that we love native breeds above all, this twinning between these two sheep breeds, Today the basis of sheep farming throughout the world and that both represent our most important genetic heritage... well, I'm going to tell you that it makes us especially happy. , put together for the first time “Churras and Merinas” break this cliché and together promote this magnificent work that ANCHE and THE MERINA RACE ASSOCIATION have been doing with their ranchers., It is a great satisfaction and we are looking forward to being in Palencia and experiencing this transterminance that will be a livestock “milestone” for the sheep sector..

Participating in the CH35 for us is a tremendous honor and a recognition that we never thought about and that also means recognition of the Merino breed and the more than 150 ranchers who today, like us, are committed to pure merino. We have been lucky to be us, but any of them would have deserved it too.

Participate in CH35, in an international benchmark fair like the one you celebrate year after year, a fair that is surpassed every year, from professionalism and seriousness it is a great honor.

Are you also committed to promoting innovation in the sheep sector?, TRUE?

Innovation is the basis of any project , also in livestock farms , we innovate from tradition, from the incorporation of sustainable ancestral practices such as transterminance , with tracking and measuring devices , from innovation in genetics using new techniques in wool improvement and measurement , dna etc.

The use of technology , The measurement of processes is part of innovation, which for us is doing the same thing that has always been done but in a more profitable way, and technology allows us to make money and save time..

Innovation must always come from respect and fidelity to the race , to innovate is to work with races in purity, give them the respect they deserve , without getting carried away by new trends , by crossing with other breeds , to innovate is to improve the breed from the breed, improving their attitudes based on selection processes.

Innovating means improving and this can always be done, That is why the work of the Associations is so important for livestock farmers, the work of its technicians hand in hand on the farms, Letting ourselves be advised by you and walking hand in hand is essential to be able to set new objectives to improve our breeds and also make our farms profitable., That's why from here I congratulate ANCHE and its professionals for the magnificent work they are doing with their breed., with the Churra breed.