Green Week in Germany is a bit like the week of the Ploughing in Ireland, the country almost stops and reflects on the role of the rural community and food production.

It is also an occasion when the great and good from Europe and around the world with an interest in agriculture, climate and the environment assemble in Berlin where Green Week is held. Part of Green Week is the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture. Over the week, there were 130 speakers and 21 panels addressing the theme of Sustainable land use: Food security starts with the soil.

Soil is core to agriculture and food

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There is validity in the view that maintaining food supply that requires land as a source of primary production requires addressing the challenges presented by climate change and biodiversity with bio degraded land restored.

However, the EU commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski went a step further when he said the EU Farm to Fork strategy would deliver additional production parallel to the environmental and climate benefits of reducing fertiliser, pesticides and increasing organic farming.

This is at variance with studies carried out by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Wageningen University and the EU Commission’s own JRC. All of these studies point to output in the EU falling combined with the cost increasing though not by enough to compensate farmers unless the same process is repeated across the world.

Given the growth ambitions of the major animal protein-producing countries of the world, it is clear that production will take precedence while retaining the ambition of reducing emissions through the adoption of existing mitigation measures and investing in research that will drive a further reduction in emissions.

In Europe the policy is that emissions will be reduced irrespective of the production consequences which given the knowledge that we have at present suggests that cuts to production are unavoidable.

Unlike rest of the world, food production is second priority in EU

It is unfortunate that the EU have such a rigid policy notwithstanding the need to achieve serious reductions in emissions and tackle climate change.

This is actually illustrated by looking at the issue of soil degradation, given that the focus was on soil in the forum.

While there is a 10% level of soil degradation in Europe, this rises to 35.5% in Oceania and is at 27% in Latin America, both major exporting regions of animal proteins.

If we are serious about a food systems approach to global agriculture and food production parallel to minimising emissions and protecting soils, then we need to focus on animal production in regions most suited to it.

It makes no sense to take dairy or beef production out of Ireland where the core feed is grass and the water is supplied from Atlantic rain to produce in air conditioned sheds in the Middle East.

Wojciechowski had an excellent soundbite that we quoted in the print edition of the Irish Farmers Journal this week: “New CAP, Farm to Fork and biodiversity strategies put us on the path to reconciling sustainable land use with the growing world demand for food.”

Unfortunately it isn’t quite right as it doesn’t deliver for food.

Podcast

Listen to my colleagues Jack Kennedy, Anne Finnegan and myself debate the issues of agribusiness in this week’s podcast: