It is said that by the year 2050, there will be another 3 billion people living on our planet. How will we feed all these people in the face of such growth and the effects of climate change? It has been estimated that global food production will have to grow by 70%. Are we prepared to do it, and do it in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way? How can Europe help ensure that it is not developing countries, and poor and marginalised communities, that will bear the burden. How can national and European policy makers ensure that solutions exist when needed?
The motion has already started. Even within the European Parliament (EP) talks on agriculture and climate change were initiated in a framework of the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), which is up for reform. In his recent report for the EP’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, French Socialist MEP Stephane Le Foll suggests better use of water, investment in energy efficient farming techniques and maintaining the capacity of soils and plants to absorb carbon.
The report suggests a number of options on how the CAP should be reformed after 2013 in order to help farmers reduce CO2 emissions and protect the environment. “The CAP will have to meet growing public demand for a more sustainable agricultural policy,
while bearing in mind that global warming may jeopardise world food production capacity, including in Europe.”
With the EP gaining new legislative powers and the CAP reform, agriculture and rural development is rapidly moving up on the agenda.
At present, agriculture accounts for 9% of the EU’s greenhouse gas and CO2 emissions. To reduce these numbers, the Le Foll report calls for:
– more efficient irrigation to defend water supplies;
– crop rotation to ward off diseases and drought;
– planting hedges or trees to protect farmland;
– checking on insects and for diseases;
– reducing methane and nitrous oxide emissions through changing diets and limiting fertilisers.
In terms of what farmers and EU citizens can do themselves, the report states it is necessary that agriculture itself emits fewer greenhouse gases, consumes less non-renewable fuel, and that it is crucial we re-consider our food production and food consumption patterns. Habits have already changed in Europe by way of people eating less meat, more fruit and vegetables, and local food produced by family farms (vs. factory farming/bio-industry).
However, this is not enough. Especially when we consider undernourished developing regions experiencing food and water insecurities while at the same time serving as resource regions for food sold in Europe. By exploiting a cheap workforce, using water and soil that could be used for local needs, exercising lack of control for the use of pesticides, and creating (frequently) a single market for international trade (coffee beans, bananas, fish), the EU – while taking care of the health and well-being of its own citizens – will remain incoherent with its other policies, namely development, climate change, and humanitarian aid.
For the time being, “the CAP as it is does not address environmental issues in a consistent manner or adopt a holistic approach. The ‘new challenges’ of climate change, water management, renewable energies and biodiversity were not fully attended to.”
EPHA has been striving for more coherent EU agriculture and climate change policies; we have been striving for the importance of health – both in the EU and globally – in all EU policies; we have been striving for ensuring that health, especially when seen in light of the Millennium Development Goals framework, is seriously being taken care of at all levels of policy making.
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