EU farm plan could lead to food shortfalls

EU POLICY on agriculture was one of the bedrocks of the entire post-World War II dream to create a peaceful European continent.

It was decided that self-sufficiency in food was a prerequisite to developing a war-free Europe and the Common Agricultural Policy was put in place to guarantee that.

The CAP was a huge factor influencing our decision to join the European Economic Community, as it was called in 1973.

For years farmers did seriously well from the EU, and between intervention and export subsidies the gravy train trundled merrily along.

As a result of CAP, farmers across Europe got every possible incentive to stay on the land full-time or part-time.

And as a consequence of that commitment, Irish agriculture enjoyed a charmed period of existence for a few decades.

But signs that this largesse wasn’t going to last forever started to emerge when reforms, introduced by the Irish EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Ray MacSharry, were initiated in the late 1980s.

As the global economy evolved and trading became more open, questions about EU subsidies gained momentum.

And the latest world trade talks are a further manifestation of the drive to put the global food sector on a free trade footing.

This has put European farmers in particular in a very sticky place, and the outlook for Irish agriculture, once the central feature of this economy, gets worse with each turn of the screw.

Many farmers believe that Peter Mandelson, the European Commissioner for Trade, responsible for the EU’s external trade policy, would sell out the entire farm sector.

This seems to be a throwback to the British Labour Party’s antagonism towards big farmers in Britain and the bottom line is that he has brought that prejudice with him to Europe.

In his own job description on the EU website he doesn’t refer to agriculture.

He regards trade as “the foundation of our prosperity and the engine of our economic growth”.

“As EU Trade Commissioner I want to promote prosperity and social justice through open, rules-based trade.

“The benefits of free and fair trade should be extended to all, especially the poorest.

“In 2006 much hangs on successful progress on the Doha Development Agenda, which aims to extend opportunities for global trade.

“Working with our international partners and through the WTO, Europe has a crucial role to play,” he says.

It is that particular European view that threatens to drive EU agriculture to the wall.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern observed recently: “We have already lost our beet industry and we would be mad to walk blindly into sacrificing further key sectors.”

If Mr Mandelson has his way that could be the final outcome.

At this stage the question of beef imports from South America is giving rise to huge concerns, and the EU seems incapable of laying down a coherent policy on that key question while being very willing to expose European agriculture.

With milk and other supports due to be gone totally by 2013, the radical changes in EU farm policy potentially expose Europe, for the first time in decades, to food shortfalls.

This is a reversal of some of the key tenets on which the EU was based.

On that basis, the food sector here maintained that Europe’s policy of self-sufficiency in food would prevent any tinkering with subsidies or intervention, but how wrong they were.

What is happening on the whole CAP and WTO front has radical implications for all of Europe.

Some forecasters speculate the next major war will be fought over water supplies, but if the EU sticks rigidly to its current plan it could be leaving the entire continent vulnerable to food shortages in years to come, which is a complete reversal of original EU policy.