Common Agricultural Policy - FoEE

FoEE meeting Monor May 2009

o Europe is a big player

o CAP is at the heart of EU food system o What is FoEE going to do???

Common Agricultural Policy - FoEE

• To begin with get a draft position

– What’s wrong with the EU food system? – What’s CAP got to do with it? – What do we do with the CAP? – What else do we need?

• Easy!

EU – What’s wrong?

Environmental :

• Land use• Resource use • Climate change• Biodiversity loss• Pollution• GMOs

EU – What’s wrong?

Social:

• Starvation Vs Obesity • Loss of small farmers • Loss of rural communities• Inequality• Corporate control

Common Agricultural Policy - FoEE

Impact of CAP:

• Supporting too much of the wrong kind of production and serving agribusiness

• Inadequate protection of farmers in Europe and globally

• Inadequate environmental and social safeguards

•Endangering public support for farming

Common Agricultural Policy - FoEE

A new era of food production in the EU

EU Foodjectives

• Produce its main needs sustainably, safely and humanely – for food, feeds, fuel from diverse food production in every region of Europe

• Optimize resource use (energy, land, soil, water, etc) and minimise chemical inputs

• To reduce reliance on fossil fuels

EU Foodjectives

• Farmers’ livelihoods is from selling products

• Vibrant rural communities and economies - safeguards small scale family farming

• Protect and enhance biological and agricultural diversity, landscapes

• Climate friendly production and consumption

EU Foodjectives

• Animal health and welfare

• Sustainable forestry, and not contributing to global deforestation

• GM-free future for Europe

• Equitable distribution of global food supplies and consumption of natural resources

Objectives for CAP

• Public benefits from farming (public money for public goods)

• Sustainable consumer demand matches sustainable production – awareness and reduce influence of agribusiness

• Increase protein sufficiency – reduce global land use

Objectives for CAP

• Optimise use of public funds - Equitable and justifiable and no pressure to reduce budget

• Enhance global development – global food security and no dumping

• Europe must allow countries to protect their own agriculture development

Tools for the Beast

• Targeted support (money and other measures) – Keeping small farmers– Maximum limit for payments– No export subsidies

• New global trade measures – For people and planet NOT corporations

Tools for the Beast

• Market regulation (supply and demand management)– Maintain buffer stocks– Import control – Set fair prices– Awareness raising – Product pricing

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• Who do we target support for and how?• How to change power structures – Break up market share? Marketing boards?

• What kind of trade – open EU market for dev countries? Allow all countries to protect agriculture?

• How do we regulate agriculture – Tariffs? Quotas? Polluter pays?

Food Sovereignty in Europe