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The European Commission is developing a plan on how to support protein plant production in Europe as part of the Farm to Fork strategy.
Director-general of the Directorate-General for Agriculture Wolfgang Burtscher said the Commission wanted to lower EU agriculture’s reliance on imported animal feed. The EU is approximately 80% self-sufficient in feed protein.
He told the Irish Farmers Journal the EU wanted to reduce the use of feed which “is produced not necessarily in an environmentally friendly manner”.
Feed protein
Roughage, such as grass silage and maize, accounts for 45% of the 85m tonnes of crude protein consumed by animals. The EU is 100% self-sufficient in roughage but produces just 26% of what it consumes in soya bean and rapeseed meal.
EU imports of oilseed meals come mainly from Brazil and the US.
Burtscher was asked if the Commission saw a greater role for biogenetic technology given the Farm to Fork’s ambitions to reduce the use of pesticides.
He said biotechnology certainly had the potential to address some of the sustainability issues which the Commission has raised. However, he warned the concerns among consumers and citizens could not be ignored.
Impact study
In recent times, the European Court of Justice has ruled that newer technologies have to comply with the genetically modified directive.
Burtscher said: “The Commission has ordered that a study should be available in spring of next year, on which basis the Commission will make, or not make, appropriate proposals regarding the use of the new technologies.”
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