On World Food Day, Copa and Cogeca is pressing for a stronger innovative EU agricultural policy to produce more with limited resources and help combat hunger and malnutrition across the world.
Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said “It is crucial to engage people in the challenge of sustainably eradicating hunger and poverty over the next 15 years. We want a stronger, stable EU agricultural policy which enables the EU to produce in an increasingly sustainable way so that we can contribute to one of the biggest challenges over the next decade: produce more with less to feed a growing world population”.
“Research and development needs to be stepped up to develop innovative solutions to produce more efficiently. This is critical given that every percentage point of agricultural productivity gained in the EU feeds over 10 million people every year. It is more important than ever with food demand set to rise by 60% by 2050. And also when malnutrition provokes the death of 3.1 million children less than 5 years old each year. We need a more balanced, fairer food chain so that farmers get a better return for their produce instead of being squeezed unfairly by retailers. We also need stronger measures under the CAP to better manage the market to deal with the extreme market volatility as well as further development of futures markets and risk management measures. Finally, we are calling for fair trade rules at the next Ministerial Conference in Nairobi where the Doha Round of world trade liberalizing talks is up for debate”, he added.
“It is crucial to have a dynamic, modern, resilient agriculture in the future which gives farmers and agri-cooperatives a viable future and ensures generation renewal to help combat hunger and malnutrition”, he concluded.