European Agricultural Models: One or Several?
Written by Joyce Quin
This publication is attached to the following conference: Agriculture and Rural life: One model or several?
Feeding 9 billion people by 2050 against the backdrop of global climate change was one of the challenges discussed in the Franco-British Council's Agriculture Seminar.
Chaired by the Rt. Hon. Baroness Joyce Quin and by Marion Guillou, president of France's INRA (National Institute for Agronomic Research), the FBC's seminar "European Agricultural Models: one of several" brought together French and British food and farming specialists, high-ranking government functionaries and environmental activists to exchange their perspectives on the challenges facing the agricultural sector. Maurice Gourdault Montagne, French ambassador to the UK, warned on an impending "triple shock" of climate change, energy supply shortages and price volatility in next few years and expressed the desire that the EU adopt imaginative policies to solve the environmental and agricultural concerns, moving away from the traditional areas of argument of the past.
Climate change's impact figured prominently in the opening remarks as did the need for government action at all levels (national and local) to reconcile policies that sustain rural communities and environmental protection. Government action is necessary also in the field of scientific research, seen as a key to facing the future's challenges.
French and British participants' reflections on the EU's CAP showed willing to move away from the stereotypes. The British saw particular value in Pillar II of the CAP which offered flexibility in changing agricultural practices and the French acknowledged faults in Pillar I with its tendency to ossify patterns of production. The importance of agricultural systems' diversity was highlighted.
Marion Gaillou suggested that France and Britain form a core group within the field of food security to face the demands of 2050. In her conclusions Baroness Quin noted that a quiet optimism prevailed and that the huge challenges ahead were not perceived as insurmountable.
Number of pages/format: 15
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 978-0-9555131-8-9