Food for everyone-towards a global deal

http://www.eesc.europa.eu/food-for-everyone/about.html


Staffan Nilsson's speech – opening session –
At the conference Food for everyone-towards a global deal
23 May 2011
EESC- JDE 62


A very warm welcome to all of you attending our conference today entitled: "Food for everyone - towards a global deal". Food security concerns us all, because it is about the earth's resources, which we all share and use, and because food is vital for our lives.

I sometimes have the feeling that we modern urbanites are wholly unaware that the food we eat is the fruit of the earth. In the rich world, supply is enormous and choice infinite. In poor countries, people at best face the daily grind of trying to scrape together just enough to live on. Yet it is the earth – the land – that supplies our daily bread. No artificial system has been invented that can convert carbon atoms in the atmosphere into organic material so effectively. Plant photosynthesis captures energy from sunlight. Oxygen is also released during this process, which is the most important cycle in nature. It is plant cells that signify growth in the real sense of the word. And agriculture is the human activity that is perhaps most clearly tied to – and dependent on – this process. As a working farmer myself, I am a tiny part of that process – alongside all my fellow farmers, great and small, across the world.

The right to food involves three interlinked concepts:

- food safety – safe and healthy food
- food sovereignty – the right of self-determination in farming policy, and
- food security – the topic of our discussion today – which is officially defined as existing "when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life".

Why is food security now on the agenda? Why indeed is it the subject of our conference today? The short answer is that it is high on the agenda of the French G20 presidency in the run-up to the June summit. The EESC has been asked for input and wants to convey a robust message from civil society that makes clear just what we expect from our political leaders.

At the same time, we know only too well that we are nowhere near achieving the Millennium Development Goals agreed in 2000 at a UN conference attended by 189 heads of state or government in a bid to halve poverty and hunger by 2015. There are precisely 1 318 days left to achieve that.

FAO figures also clearly show that global-market food prices are on the increase. I look forward to hearing the FAO contribution to our discussions. In the short term, food price increases weigh heavily on people in countries that are, of necessity, net food importers.

We have also long known that some one billion people have too little food to live on. In 2009, the FAO pointed out that, far from improving, the situation had got worse, with the number of people in this category having risen by some 100 million.

There are thus many reasons to focus on food security and the right to food.

World leaders are concerned about the current increase in food prices on the world market and this is a major problem in the short term for developing countries that are reliant on imports.

Last year, a number of countries – including Russia – halted their grain exports so as to be able to meet their own supply needs. On 9 May this year, we learned that the Russian export ban, which will continue until at least 1 July, is threatening the Russian wheat harvest as lower domestic prices mean that farmers are switching from wheat to more profitable crops.

On 21 May, we heard that grain prices are shooting up because of drought. The European grain harvest has been hit by dry weather and frost damage. The wheat price has reached a record high.

I would at the same time like to quote from one of the contributors to our conference homepage:

"But the real problem is never addressed, that is the weak economic situation of farmers all over the world. In most countries, developed and developing countries' farm incomes are far below incomes in most other sectors of the economy. If farmers made money and had a sufficient income, hunger would not be an issue."

Clearly there are two sides to rising prices – just as hugely fluctuating prices create problems in themselves. Just how is everything linked together?

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the FAO in Rome on 6 May and spoke decisively and at length on the issue. Among other things, she said:

"We need to respond to the current climb in prices with immediate action while simultaneously deepening our commitment to long-term investment in agriculture and food security worldwide."

Let us hope that other world leaders take the same view and that we move from words to action.

Many issues need to be discussed and I hope you all will have the opportunity to tackle them during our workshops today. These include:

Investment – What can be done to boost investment and give farmers – not forgetting that women farmers are the norm across the world – access to micro-credits and the opportunity to invest?

Infrastructure – What can be done to give small farmers in remote areas the opportunity to market surplus production? How can we avoid production being undermined because of logistical shortcomings or lack of infrastructure?

Research and development – Where will the resources come from? What areas should we focus on? Are GM crops an opportunity or a threat?

Property rights – The whole land issue is complex. What can be done to give opportunities to countries that need land reform?

Land-grabbing – Is the fact that countries and companies buy up land in other countries a threat or an opportunity for local development? Do we need an international convention?

Biofuel production – Is biofuel production on arable land an opportunity or a threat for food production?

Climate change – How might climate change affect food production?

We can hardly mention all these issues without also touching on the CAP, the common agricultural policy, which is currently in a state of flux. There is no doubt that Europe's farmers need a common, forward-looking policy. The single market needs more – not fewer – common rules. That said, I also agree with a comment left on our website:

"In Sweden, different stakeholders – the farmers' association, the major environmental NGOs and the Church of Sweden – discussed ways to increase the coherence between these policies. One of the common conclusions was that the continued reform of CAP should focus on achieving ecological, social and economic sustainability in agriculture, and on clarifying the relationship between public support and the public goods and social values that farmers deliver to society."
Obviously we need a consistent, coherent policy.

The conclusions and recommendations of today's workshops will be organised civil society's input to discussions on food security within the G20. We hope that the outcome will also contribute to wider European and global discussions on this issue.

I am convinced that the EESC can, with its expertise and network of contacts with civil society in Europe and worldwide, provide an innovative and balanced contribution to the forthcoming G20 meeting.

Food security issues play an equally important role in policies designed by the European Commission. The conference today has been organised in close cooperation with the European Commission, and I would like to thank the Commission for its support. I am also very glad that two commissioners, Mr Dacian Ciolos and Mr Andris Piebalgs, will be attending today.

In the run-up to today's conference, a discussion forum was posted on the internet to encourage debate on the issues we are now addressing. My thanks go to everyone who contributed. A number of people highlighted the importance of rallying farmers in developing countries. The point was also made that, as we in the industrialised countries are pursuing a policy of coherence among a number of different areas, then we must be prepared to ensure that trade policy and development policy are consistent with agricultural policy and vice-versa.


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You are all welcome to participate in the debate that follows. If you wish to take the floor, please fill in the request card that you find in your conference file and give the completed card to one of the ushers in the room. There are 5 request cards in your files: one for the debate on food security as a global challenge, plus one for each of the four workshops.


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We have selected four major themes that we will then be looking at during four workshops, all intended to provide input on different matters.

Workshop 1 – food security and the functioning of the global agricultural markets
Workshop 2 – food security as a right
Workshop 3 – food security and the need for policy coherence between agriculture, trade and development policies
Workshop 4 – food security in the developing countries

I would like to give a special welcome to our guests and speakers who have travelled from far afield – from Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, India, Japan, Lesotho, South Africa. It will be particularly interesting to learn about your views and experiences.


Welcome once again – and I wish you every success in your deliberations today.

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For further details:
Coralia Catana EESC President's Spokesperson +32 (0)25469963 +32 (0)498984613
E-mail: coralia.catana@eesc.europa.eu president.eesc@eesc.europa.eu
Internet: http://www.eesc.europa.eu/?i=portal.en.staffan-nilsson-speeches

Source: http://www.eesc.europa.eu/food-for-everyone/2011-05-23-speech-food-for-everyone-en.doc