AGRI-FOOD Chain partners Parliamentary Evening: A competitive European Agriculture_Working together to provide nutritious & affordable food!_23.11.2009

In the wake of major new challenges for European Agriculture, including growing world food demand, changes in climatic conditions and higher energy prices leaders from the EU agriculture sector emphasized the importance of the agri-food sector in providing high quality and affordable food to consumers at an evening reception held in Brussels.

The increasing fluctuation of prices for agricultural products and rising food prices in all EU Member States show that prices are not only influenced by cyclical factors but also by general irreversible longterm trends. These include world population growth; urbanization; shifting appetites from grain to meat in emerging economies. FAO estimates that we will have to double the world food production by 2050. Whilst the necessity of producing more food seems to be clear, this needs to be achieved in a sustainable way. As the world’s no. 1 exporter of food, the European Union has to play a vital role in contributing to sustainable food production and trade, to strengthening economic growth and poverty alleviation. The FAO World Summit on Food Security being currently held in Rome highlights the need to massively increase investment in Agriculture to fight world hunger while promoting the protection of biodiversity and adapting agricultural production to the challenges of climate change.

These topics were discussed with Members of the European Parliament during a Parliamentary evening co-organised by eleven agri-food chain organisations. (1)

The Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Paolo De Castro as well as the Chairman of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, Jo Leinen, both highlighted the importance of the agri-food sector in providing high quality and affordable food to European Citizens and stressed that issues relating to the work of the food chain will remain a priority on the agenda of
their respective Committees.

“Farmers, agri-cooperatives, landowners, agriculture suppliers as well as traders of agricultural products, livestock and inputs have a common interest in the development of a competitive agriculture in the European Union that reassures consumers that the food they eat meets society’s expectations in terms of safety, quality and sustainability” said Pekka Pesonen, Secretary General of COPA/COGECA
representing the co-hosting organisations. This platform for discussion was highly welcomed by participants as a starting point at the beginning of a new Parliament term to intensify even further the already well established dialogue between the food chain and policy makers.