Local Mapping of EPGs EN Local mapping of EPGs EN | Page 21

Tomatoes

2002 9.500 4.500.000 2012 10.400 11.900.000

Netherlands, Spain, Italy

Onions

2002 7.700 2.100.000 Netherlands, Austria, 2012 12.300 4.900.000

Macedonia

Oranges

Lemons

Apples

Greece, Spain, South Africa

Spain, Argentina, Turkey

Austria, Slovenia, Italy

Source: http:// www. jatrgovac. com / 2013 / 08 / trziste-svjezeg-voca-i-povrca-nedostaje-nam-svega-osim-mandarina /

The low price of food is often due to the conventional method of production, which uses a high amount of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, which causes the agricultural production to be one of the biggest polluters of today. The pollution caused by the transport of raw materials at greater distances is added to all this, the erosion and consumption of agricultural land and the inhuman treatment of the livestock, you conclude that the real price of the product is never really exposed.

In Croatia, family farms occupy even 84 % of the available agricultural land, and about half of the farms have less than one hectare of land. Farm households in the country, therefore, are very significant social actors, upon which depends a significant portion of the productive factor as regards the overall consumption of food. The problem in Croatia is not that the land is not managed by a few large producers, which would be able to control the majority of food production. The problem is that many people who produce food is not used as an incentive for a program that could point to the ecology and to the socio-demographic and local economic development.

When you buy products at the supermarket, supply is very poor. You can find fruits, vegetables and spices that have never been grown in our country, you can buy fresh cucumbers and paprika in the middle of the winter, cheap wine, meat of animals of which nobody knows the origin- nor how, nor where they lived, nor how they died and how long are they been dead.

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