Brussels, 10/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The chair of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, Paolo de Castro (S&D, Italy), believes that the European Union should adopt a holistic approach - economic, political, environmental and agricultural - in order to respond to the challenge of food security.
This theory, set out in his latest work - The politics of land and food scarcity - was the subject of a debate organised by the European Parliament's S&D Group on Tuesday 9 July. Feeding the planet is an issue that will be all the more pressing in 2050. “We will have 9 billion inhabitants on earth and this is not exclusively the problem of developing countries. Everyone has to eat. This affects every one of us”, De Castro said.
De Castro calls for more coordination from states in managing their trade and agricultural policies so as to fight against price volatility and avoid export restrictions on strategic commodities.
He also highlights the common agricultural policy (CAP): “We must ask ourselves how to produce more with ever less water and oil”, he says. “The answer is simple. It is through innovation and ecology”. In De Castro's opinion, agriculture must be modernised to allow the production - both quantitative and qualitative - of sustainable food through respect for land balance. The leader of the S&D Group, Hannes Swoboda, hailed the work of the S&D Group in the CAP reform, saying that it is necessary to invest in this sector so as to safeguard rural employment and “preserve the identity of regions”. Swoboda concluded that “a modern societal policy that didn't take agriculture sufficiently into account would not be viable”.
In the view of Matthias Groote (S&D, Germany), who is the chair of the environment, public health and food safety committee, food security must be the single priority - even when it's a case of preserving the environment. Groote mentioned biofuels in particular, which could represent a danger for food security - with agricultural land not being used for food but for the production of biofuels. In the fight against climate change, he also called for more cooperation: “We need international partners and a clear line between the EU member states”, he said, hoping that an agreement could be found at the UN conference on the environment in Paris in 2015. (LM/transl.fl)