Fischler calls for the CAP to re-address food security issue

He said the CAP must be used over the next 50 years to ‘preserve and enhance EU capacity to produce food and a good environment in a sustainable way’.

While the emphasis of recent CAP has been on environmental security, he wants the balanced redressed so food security is granted equal importance.

“These are equally important and interrelated targets that cannot be left to the market alone, and must be actively pursued with the appropriate tools, not just in Europe’s narrow interest, but in that of the world,” he said.

Mr Fischler is chairman of a new Forum, an initiative of the European Landowners’ Organisation and Syngenta, and created in response to a belief that EU agriculture policy, despite recent reforms, is still focused on solving ‘yesterday’s problems’, such as overproduction, and does not deal with the new challenges like food security.

“We need a policy change. We cannot tackle tomorrow’s challenges with yesterday’s policy toolkit”, Mr Fischler said at the forum’s first conference.

Weakening or scrapping the CAP altogether would be counterproductive, he warned.

“Farmers must wonder how they can be expected to contribute to satisfy world food demand, save energy and water, and preserve the environment, all at the same time, when farm payments and public support are on the down path,” he said.

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