The reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should consider food and environmental security together, argued Thierry de l'Escaille, secretary-general of the European Landowners Organisation.
Speaking at a EurActiv debate on Europe's role in world food security, de l'Escaille said CAP subsidies are necessary, but should be used as an incentive for farmers to deliver public goods, such as quality soil, water and air.
He also argued that a combined food and environmental security policy would help justify the CAP and its budget to the public at large.
The workshop took place in the European Parliament, with the support of agri-business firm Syngenta.
Need for more research
Maive Rute, director of the European Commission's research department, argued that "food security is not a poverty issue, but a knowledge and supply issue" and that more needs to be done to help farmers access technology and become more productive.
Her comments were echoed by Johan Swinnen, senior research fellow at Brussels-based think-tank CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies). If food prices rise any further and lead to food shortages, the EU should not keep on subsidising farmers directly, Swinnen argued, but redirect funding towards science, research and development to make agriculture more productive.
Farmers asked to diversify output
"It is all about moving towards a bio-based economy," Maive Rute continued, referring to the shift towards non-food products in the agricultural sector. Agricultural policy "needs to take into account that farmers will need to produce not only food but also fuel and fibres," she said.
Thierry de l'Escaille also stressed that farming is a business and that farmers "need to diversify their production" to include more products, such as energy and fibre.
EU approach to food security
Speakers from the floor noted that it is not clear who is in charge of food security at the European Commission, calling on the EU executive to develop a more coherent policy on the matter. A horizontal approach to food security is needed to consider all the policies affecting the issue, they argued.
The floor also called for a 'depolitising' of the debate between conventional, organic and genetically-modified (GM) farming in order to allow rational reflection on food security.
While panellists agreed that the EU's reluctance to grow GM crops influences the acceptability of biotechnology in Africa, Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness questioned the Union's stance and noted that while the bloc does not grow that much, it imports huge amounts of GM foodstuffs to feed its livestock.
African perspective
Malawi's EU ambassador, Brave Ndisale, noted that while the European debate about food security revolves around price volatility, the main issue for Africans remains the availability and accessibility of food.
"We have supply constraints," she said, explaining how lack of technology, infrastructure and poor market access triggers inelasticity in the food supply.
According to Ndisale, Africa hopes that EU agricultural subsidies will not affect world markets, and wants the EU to share its technology and knowledge with African farmers. Africans want the EU to help encourage small farmers and other actors in the food chain. She noted that thanks to recent government action to help small-scale farmers, Malawi had managed to produce a surplus of 500 million tons of food in one year.
