European Parliament supports call to address food security concerns

A CALL to address global food security concerns, including putting agriculture higher up the political agenda, has been supported by the European Parliament.

It gave overwhelming support to a report by Ireland East MEP, Mairead McGuinness, which outlined the many concerns around food production.

The report notes that global food stocks are too low, that agriculture has been neglected in recent years and that, with the world’s population set to grow by 40% by 2050, action is now needed to ensure sufficient food to feed the world.

Ms McGuinness calls for a permanent EU food security fund to support the world’s poorest people.

“It is an appalling situation that one in six goes hungry every day and 30,000 children die of hunger and poverty-related illnesses every day,” she says.

“We cannot allow the economic crisis to take from efforts to assist the developing world produce food where this is possible and appropriate.”

Ms McGuinness calls for the introduction of instruments to avert dramatic and damaging price fluctuation and argues that the EU should take the initiative by proposing a global food inventory regime.

The report seeks a global assessment of the impact of the rise in biofuel production on commodity prices. It stresses the need for international and regional agreements to ensure that energy crops do not threaten food security.

It also urges a firm commitment from the EU to give priority to second-generation biofuels that do not compete with food production.

It expresses concerns about the slump in commodity prices, which is putting severe income pressure on producers.

The report also says the Common Agricultural Policy must remain the cornerstone of EU food security policy beyond 2013 and that it should be adapted to go further than the measures contained in the Health Check.

It also calls for EU agriculture spending to be kept at a stable level to guarantee fair income for farmers.

It urges the European Commission to look at the impact of climate change mitigation initiatives in the agriculture sector.