"Europe's role as provider of food to the world is diminishing," and as 2015 approaches, the EU is expected to move from being a net exporter to a net importer of wheat, oilseeds and other commodities, said Franz Fischler, chairman of the Forum on the Future for Agriculture, last week.
This means that "the EU capacity to help fight world starvation will be reduced at a time in which food production will decline predominantly in those countries which already record increasing food import needs," Fischler added.
However, he predicted that Europe will become a "more secure production location" in comparison to other parts of the world, where higher food prices are driving deforestation. "Consequently, Europe has to take responsibility to significantly contribute to world food security and also to combat global warming by utilising its production potential," Fischler argued, adding that there is good potential new land to be cultivated in Eastern Europe, for example.
Indeed, one of the main challenges threatening global food supply is the lack of quality soil, which is under growing stress due to increasing populations, accelerated urbanisation and diversion of irrigated water towards cities.
Meanwhile, Fischler said "new land is insufficient" due to potentially polluted soil, doubtful property rights, government mismanagement, lack of adequate transportation infrasturucture to get food to market or simply urbanisation. In order to meet world food demand, "the necessary production growth will to a large extent have to be met by a rise in the productivity of the land already being farmed today," he added.
Increased productivity should, however, go hand-in-hand with increased environmental protection as the climate, environmental and food crisis are interconnected, Fischler went on. Without a greater and more stable food economy, "one cannot expect to meet the Kyoto goals against climate change," while without success at the Copenhagen Conference later this year, "food production itself would suffer in turn from declining yields," he explained.
The EU's ex-farm chief further argued that the challenge was thus to update the CAP so that it "allows us to preserve our capacity to sustainably produce the food we need, and help satisfy a growing world demand as well".
Fischler welcomed in advance the Commission's upcoming White Paper on adaptation to climate change and its annexed working paper on agriculture, which "apparently advocates strengthening the CAP to discourage unsustainable practices" and "deals with crops with existing varieties as well as biotechnology products, heat-tolerant livestock breeds and modifications in animal diet patterns".
