Wake-up call over our food production

Mar 18 2008 by Paddy Rooney, Western Mail

ONE of the original objectives of the European Common Agricultural Policy was to provide stability for the farming industry. Wild fluctuations in market prices made it virtually impossible for farmers to plan ahead, and in the aftermath of World War II stability was essential if the industry was to recover.

Commodity support, either in markets or provided directly to producers, was effective. Confidence returned and, despite changes in the CAP, survived more or less intact until fairly recently.

The globalisation of markets, however, has badly undermined it. Imports have flooded in, and domestic production now provides barely half national consumption. Demand from increasingly prosperous developing countries is forcing up feed and fertiliser, energy and fuel. Profits have collapsed.

For consumers, globalisation seemed at first to offer only gain, and many came to assume their local supermarket would always provide unlimited cheap food.

But this comfortable assumption is failing. New buyers in world markets are forcing up the cost of imports and this, compounded by reduced domestic production, has led to the fastest increase in food prices for years.

We need to wake up. Demand patterns world-wide are changing and pressures on productive land are growing – a situation made worse as crops are diverted to new applications such as biofuels. Commodity and financial markets everywhere are chaotic and speculators are having a field day.

The problems must be addressed if farmers and consumers are not to suffer unduly. As the UK’s new Chief Scientific Adviser has courageously pointed out, more productive land use and greater self-sufficiency would give some protection.

This would require a fundamental shift in land-management thinking, and raises uncomfortable questions.

Low-productivity land use may make us feel virtuous, but can we afford it? Should we continue to reject technological developments because of scientifically- questionable anxieties? Should we bring more land into production even at some cost to biodiversity?

Political courage will be needed. There have been welcome signs on the energy front. Farming is next in line.

Paddy Rooney is a member of the Welsh executive of the Country Land and Business Association