A/HRC/43/44/Add.5 69. In addition, in wholesale markets, some farmers reported that they were forced to accept low prices, to pay to sell their products or to use monopolistic services (such as parking, transport and packaging) provided at high prices. Some of the illegal activities in the agrifood system in Italy include the purchase of land to access the resources of the Common Agricultural Policy (see the following paragraph), the use of counterfeit pesticides that are either imported or assembled and often sprayed by workers without adequate knowledge and safety measures,34 and food fraud and contamination, which are increasing. Reports and local interviews reveal that the presence of criminal organizations across the food chain discourages investments in the sector.35 70. Regarding in particular the illegal access to Common Agricultural Policy funds, according to local authorities, thousands of acres of farmland in the east of Sicily has been fraudulently acquired to qualify for European Union agricultural subsidies. These lands have been taken through illegal practices, including extortion, and have frequently been left unfarmed with the sole purpose of acquiring subsidies. Concerning this practice, a vast investigation was carried out in Sicily, involving 600 police officers, which culminated in 94 arrests on 15 January 2020.36 71. Illegality is economically motivated, thus inevitably linked with attempts to reduce costs, increase prices, destroy environment and social practices, and discourage smallholders from entering the market. In this context, the Government and the local authorities have achieved significant success and seized valuable assets and goods.37 The continued efforts by the competent Italian authorities (the Central Inspectorate for Fraud Prevention and others) to move towards having a worldwide-acknowledged national control system in the agrifood sector are commendable. G. Climate change 72. The year 2019 was dire with regard to the weather in Italy, not only because it was among the hottest years ever recorded, but also because it reached a new record of 157 extreme events, including cloudbursts, tornadoes, wildfires, droughts and landslides. Climate change is affecting the Italian peninsula, with projections of a loss of 8 per cent of the country’s GDP by 2050,38 and the agrifood system will be among the first to suffer.39 73. Desertification, lower yields, fewer hours worked due to extreme temperatures, diseases and the loss of crops are environmental realities that have a socioeconomic impact and mostly affect farm workers employed in greenhouses and in fields,40 but also farmers who are exposed to debt, or those who have an insufficient financial buffer and cannot cope with the loss or reduction of their income. In addition, climate change risks to deepen the North-South divide and radically transform the agricultural framework of Italy, with more abandonments of farms, a loss of biodiversity and an increased dependency on imports. Furthermore, the changes in the weather patterns are also leading to an increase of alien species on land and in the sea, with a 96 per cent increase in the last 30 years, with significant consequences for farming and fishing. 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 12 This information is based on an interview with farm workers in the Latina area of the region of Lazio. National Institute of Statistics, “Stima preliminare dei conti economici dell’agricoltura: anno 2019” (2020). “Sicilian mafia ripped off millions in EU farm aid, Italian police say”, Independent, 15 January 2020. Lili Bayer, “94 arrested in Italy over EU agriculture funding fraud”, Politico, 15 January 2020. E. Ronchi, Relazione sullo stato della green economy: 2019 (Fondazione per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile, Rome, 2019). Osservatorio di Legambiente CittàClima, Il Clima È Già Cambiato (2019). C. Liguori, “Bracciante in nero muore nella serra a Varcaturo, denunciato l’imprenditore”, Il Mattino, 1 September 2019.