Even as the British withdrawal from the EU was being put in place, the official UK obsession with the alleged failings of the CAP continued at the hugely successful Forum for the Future of Agriculture conference held in Brussels last week.

With more than 2,000 in attendance, it is the largest and most heavyweight agricultural conference I know of. The brainchild of the former commissioner Franz Fischler, he has handed on the baton to the former environment commissioner, the earnest and patently decent Janez Potocnik from Slovenia. The event has essentially become a two-day gathering, with the first day devoted to a more detailed look at topics than would be possible in the packed agenda in the main hall on the day of the conference itself.

The scene was set by a video contribution recorded in the Vatican from Pope Francis backed up by a statement from the papal nuncio to the EU.

Broadly, these contributions backed up what the pontiff had already written in his encyclical on our shared home, the desirability of a basic self-sufficiency in food for each country and the need for “a circular economy in agriculture”. In other words, that as much should be recycled as possible.

This is much broader than it sounds and is at the base of a lot of contemporary thinking as some resources become scarcer and more expensive.

This was followed by Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of the United Nations who, together with the representative from the OECD, agreed that we are seeing progress in reducing world hunger. We are, as he said, producing more grain than ever and we are seeing the importance of investment in agriculture in developing countries, with increasing agricultural productivity an important driver of economic development. We now need to concentrate on nutrition and agriculture that minimises greenhouse gas emissions, and, in the African context, allows smallholders to participate in real development.

CAP

European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan was introduced as being in charge of a policy that had been an expensive failure for a long time. In many ways, this is a recurring British complaint and has been since the UK joined more than 40 years ago. However, in a clear and calm speech, he gave us a different perspective.

He said that in its 55 years the CAP had been a real success, giving food security within the EU and beyond. It had recognisably the highest standards in food quality and safety and provided 44m jobs, as well as a positive balance of trade of over €18bn with the rest of the world.

Economic viability

He said that in any review the economic viability of farmers must be a precondition and while it is an economic, social and environmental policy, farmers must be rewarded. But all that said, he gave no indication as to the likely direction of his review, considering, as he said, he has a large public consultation in progress which is to last until early May.

It’s unlikely we will have a very clear indication of the Commission’s proposals for the CAP for the 2020s until towards the end of the year.

We then moved on. As was to be expected, New Zealand minister for primary industries and racing Nathan Guy gave a smooth and polished performance, but he clearly felt exposed in an environmentally conscious Europe, because 50% of all New Zealand’s greenhouse gases come from agriculture. The average figure for Europe is about 10%; Ireland is the European outlier, with about 30% coming from agriculture. However, despite minister Guy saying New Zealand’s policy was still to double the value of agricultural output by 2025, he did not put a volume increase on the table, but he said New Zealand had signed up to the Paris climate agreement.

They were, he said, doing a lot of research on the topic and, together with a lot of countries, were confident of making progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, though he acknowledged it was more difficult when stock were out the whole time instead of being indoors for significant periods of the year as in Europe. We will, he said, find a solution “but we are not prepared to cull half our herd”.

Probably the core of the two days zoned in on the CAP itself. The huge hall was packed for Commissioner Hogan’s address.

He was giving it in the context of a new report released the previous day, which called for the dismantlement of the direct payments system. These direct payments, under the so-called Pillar I system, account for 70% of CAP spending and form the essential base to farm incomes in the old market-supported product areas.

Higher prices

The report called for higher prices to recognise the full costs of production, but no indication was given on how in a more open world such prices could be achieved. In an extraordinary comment, the report suggested “the ability to import is the most resilient policy to ensure food security”.

This was coupled with an apparent dismissal of the worth of the greening measures in the current CAP, but it did call for special top-ups in environmentally or socially important marginal areas.

Ireland, in its policy proposals, will have to counter this report’s conclusions if the aim of preserving Pillar I and its supports to farmers to the maximum extent is to be achieved.

Standards

In one of the few Irish contributions, former IFA president and now member of the EU Social and Economics Committee John Bryan made the point to the full session that the EU produces food to higher standards of safety, traceability and environmental awareness than other countries and farmers are entitled to recognition and extra payments for that.

In addition, there were fascinating examples given of the potential of monitoring drones in scanning soil fertility, crop progress and even applying chemicals. It is at the moment illegal in the EU to apply any chemical from a drone.

There was a session on biological control, ie using insects, etc, to control crop disease with the most progress being made in sugar cane.

There was also a fascinating presentation on how the absence of livestock is responsible for the creeping desertification of countries in Africa such as Chad and even in China on the outskirts of Beijing. If more information on this is of interest, an online search for Allan Savory is advised.