To CAP it all

Since becoming European commissioner for agriculture and rural development last year, I have made a point of visiting as many member states as possible in order to get a clearer picture of their agricultural sector and the farm policy priorities.
On each trip, I hold talks with the minister of agriculture, farmer representatives and, where possible, members of the agriculture committee of the national parliament and NGOs, in order to give a multi-layered picture of the situation in each country. Every visit highlights the important challenges that the agricultural sector faces, and when I look at them together, it confirms that we were accurate in our summary last year of the key challenges ahead – food security, maintaining our natural resources and preserving the territorial balance. At the same stage, these visits have also underlined the vast difference in the different types of agriculture that we have in Europe with 27 member states.
Even in our larger countries, we do not have a single model for agriculture. One of the key challenges for the forthcoming CAP reform will therefore be the way in which we can address these global issues, while also embracing this diversity of agriculture.
In recent weeks, I have had two particularly interesting and useful missions outside the EU.
In February I went to the US, and then last month I visited China. Both countries have very important agricultural sectors, and a very strong political commitment to agriculture policy – even if there are significant differences in the role of government in managing these policies. However, discussions with my counterparts in Washington DC and Beijing revealed that the main medium to long term reoccupation in both countries revolves around increasing food productivity in
order to address the challenge of global food security, but in a way that is sustainable for the soil, for water, for energy, for the environment, within the context of climate change. In fact, certain conversations were almost identical with discussions I have had with other ministers in various parts of the EU.
After similar exchanges with a number of other agriculture ministers within the margins of the Green Week in Berlin in January, I feel that most governments around the world are increasingly aware of the need to produce more using more sustainable farming practices. In this difficult economic situation, the key problem that remains is how to persuade farmers to take these important production decisions which are probably not as economically rewarding in the short to medium term.
One of our aims for CAP reform must therefore be to show leadership, to take the longer term view and encourage farmers to increase productivity in a way that is sustainable. By greening our system of direct payments, we want to use our policy to reinforce the challenge of the eco-competitiveness of European agriculture and our rural economy and to make sure that all farmers in Europe embrace certain agricultural practices which will ensure that their farmland can still be used in 25 or 50 years time. By doing this en masse and by fostering innovation through our rural development policy, I believe that agriculture can make a real contribution to the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. If we don't make this investment at European level after 2013, it is likely to be considerably more expensive for the period after 2020.
What about the third challenge, maintaining the territorial balance? I can confirm that the concept of developing the rural economy is a key issue, not just in Europe. It was an issue very prominent in my discussions in China. The problem of having 20 per cent of the world population, but just seven per cent of the world's land area, means that territorial balance is massively important. I'm proud to claim that the CAP has been a major reason in recent years for stimulating the rural economy in many regions of Europe and maintaining our food production capacity in all areas of the EU. However, the CAP has also created jobs that go beyond agriculture – whether in agri-tourism, food processing, or simply facilitating start up and investments of small
non-agricultural enterprises and services.
If you look at all the challenges that Europe faces in the coming years, I believe that agriculture – and therefore the common agricultural policy – has a particularly important role to play. Its importance should not be measured simply in terms of the number of people that work in agriculture. As I have said since the day I took office, the CAP is not just for farmers. It is a policy that, while it is primarily carried out by farmers, is for all European citizens, for all consumers and for more than half of the total European area.