EU told to 'show leadership' on food security

By Martin Banks - 30th March 2011
Britain's top scientific advisor has urged the EU to "show global leadership" in tackling food security issues.

However, speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, Sir John Beddington refused to be drawn in on the row over cloned meat.

Campaigners for new controls, including MEPs, were defeated after 12 hours of talks on Monday between member states and parliament failed to agree a law to regulate the cloned meat industry.

The failure to reach agreement has sparked bitter recriminations but Beddington declined to get involved, telling this website, "I do not want to comment on this."

Beddington, who reports directly to UK prime minister David Cameron, was in Brussels to launch the UK government's report on the 'the future of food and farming.'

The report predicts that, with the global population set to increase from seven to eight billion by 2030, the food system will face "unprecedented" pressure.

In a keynote speech at a breakfast briefing, he said the planned reform of the Common Agricultural Policy should "deliver a competitive agricultural sector."

In drafting future framework programmes, the EU, he insisted, should also give "more priority" to R&D in the food system.

He said, "The main message I want to get across today is that we have urgently got to address the issue of food security. In other words, how we are going to feed nine billion people in a sustainable and equitable way.

"This has got to include everything from energy and water to food security. Clearly, this is going to be a major challenge."

The 207-page report, which includes contributions from 400 leading experts from 35 countries, was launched at the British chamber of commerce to Belgium.

It urges the EU to show "global leadership on subsidy and trade reform issues and strengthen the EU's presence in regional and international food security".

Beddington, one of only two national chief scientific advisors in the EU, said that the report "makes clear" that the global food system up to 2050 will face "enormous challenges, as great as any it has confronted in the past."

He added, "It carries a stark warning for both current and future decision-makers on the consequences of inaction. Food production and the food system must assume a much higher priority in the political agendas across the world.

"To address the unprecedented challenges that lie ahead the food system needs to change more radically in the coming decades than ever before, including the industrial revolution."

Beddington told an audience of business leaders and EU policymakers there were "grounds for optimism".

"It is now possible to anticipate a time when global population numbers cease to rise and there's a growing consensus that global poverty is unacceptable."

Beddington later took part in a high-level seminar, organised by the European commission's joint research centre.

Meanwhile, the confederation of food and drink industries of the EU said it "regrets" the failure to reach an agreement on novel foods, including the sale of meat from cloned animals.

Its president Jesús Serafín Pérez, said, "The CIAA regrets the failure to reach an agreement on the novel foods regulation. It would have encouraged innovation in the food and drink industry, engendering greater consumer choice and facilitating market access for novel foods.

"This impacts on Europe's 500 million consumers and Europe's largest manufacturing sector, made up of 288,000 companies, 99.1 per cent of which are small and medium-sized enterprises."
source:
http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/eu-told-to-show-leadership-on-food-security/