Unió de Pagesos demonstrated this Tuesday, 23 December 2025, at the Talaia de Gelida (Alt Penedès) in defence of farmers and the maintenance of agricultural space against the construction of industrial estates and macro-projects like the Agroparc promoted by Casa Ametller. Specifically, to exemplify this rejection, the union carried out the protest, which gathered around thirty demonstrators and a dozen tractors, and read the manifesto of the event near the land where earthworks have begun as part of the works for this project.
In this regard, the union has emphasised that, despite being presented publicly as an agricultural project, this is an industrial macro-project and facilities that destroys productive agricultural land and threatens protected species such as the Bonelli's eagle. Furthermore, Unió de Pagesos has also denounced the water grabbingt hat the project entails for the construction of highly technified greenhouses. A practice that, warns the union, poses a serious threat and unfair competition for the professional farming community in the area.
Unió de Pagesos has reiterated on several occasions the serious impact that this project would have about some land that the Metropolitan Territorial Plan of Barcelona identifies as areas to be protected for their natural and agricultural interest and provides special protection for the vineyards in the area, included within the DO Penedès. Furthermore, last summer an administrative contentious appeal was filed, as part of the Stop Agroparc platform, before the High Court of Justice of Catalonia requesting the annulment of the Specific Modification of the Municipal Urban Planning Plan [MPOUM] of Gelida that gives the green light to the project due to the “serious environmental, urban planning and procedural irregularities” of the project.
Land maintenance
During the mobilization, the union has also claimed the role of local farmers as agents to maintain a vibrant and orderly territory and has criticized the processes of land reclassification, which it considers an attack on small farms.
In this regard, the union presented last year objections in defence of agricultural land to the draft Partial Territorial Plan of Penedès. These objections were based on the value of these territories as food producers and reserves of biodiversity, beyond their landscape value.
Original press release from Unió de Pagesos
"Manifest Alt Penedès" from Unió de Pagesos
