Normally, if someone calls for a new, international agreement on agriculture, it can be dismissed as so much idle grandstanding, but when it’s the president and head of research at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, then one has to take some notice.

At the Forum for the Future of Agriculture conference earlier this year, Louise Fresco, head of Wageningen – probably the leading agricultural university in the world – called for a special UN panel on agriculture, similar to the one that exists on climate change, which is better known by its initials, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

Fresco delivered a speech that surprised everyone with its breadth and ambition. She had points that have to make people think. Food is now cheaper and safer for the European community than ever in history.

As society in Europe ages and urbanises, the connection with agriculture weakens – we can already see that in Ireland. While population growth is continuing strongly in Africa, Europe’s population is shrinking. Rich countries such as Japan and South Korea are seeing a rapid decline in population and Russia’s is dropping even faster.

Within Europe, not only are fewer agri-chemicals being used, but there is a deep suspicion of science – in some quarters, even vaccination for animal and human diseases is becoming less accepted despite the huge advantages they have conferred on mankind.

We are still not clear where urban farming and synthetic meat are going to lead to, but when we see Kerry buying a Dutch synthetic meat company, we should at least wonder what’s likely to emerge. At the same time, technology and genetics are rapidly evolving. We see sensors transmit fertiliser information instantaneously to the spreaders which vary the spreading rate automatically, never mind the possibilities that drones and feeding people a diet specially geared to their own individual genetic makeup.

All of these developments are on the horizon but as is the case of GMO plants if they are taken up elsewhere and Europe stalls will we, as European farmers, get left further and further behind and become increasingly uncompetitive? The world has signed up to the Paris climate accord. Is a similar food and agriculture accord conceivable? If Europe is to compete on the world stage, it’s needed.

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