As Brussels and the day-to-day management of the Common Agricultural Policy resumes, together with longer-term planning as the Irish presidency and European Commission grapple with budgetary constraints and international trade policies, we should stand back and take a broader look at what is driving international agricultural policy.

The original insistence by the United States of America, in the mid-1990s, that agriculture should be part of the world trade organisation has clearly run its course.

The insistence by the US at that stage was driven, not surprisingly by national self interest.

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Brazil was threatening to become a net importer of food and never looked likely to become the exporting powerhouse that science and policy have combined to make it since then.

While Russia was in post-communism chaos, it was still a major market for western cereals, meat and dairy products.

Of the great populous nations, China and India carved out their own policies based on national self sufficiency, with freedom to manage both imports and national stockpiles as they saw fit.

We are now in a new phase. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is effectively moribund, while the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) has a confined, rich country membership and has worried much more about distorting trade subsidies rather than rational agricultural policies that facilitate progress and adequate human nutrition.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO) has broadly kept its reputation and worldwide membership intact. It used to issue thought-out policy papers, one of them being a thoughtful analysis on the place of regional self sufficiency in food production.

This  summer should persuade policymakers to revisit the topic. Never have we seen such concerns about food production being jeopardised by weather and war but sensible policy recommendations on a global basis have been non-existent. 

It is ironic that the head post at the FAO is now vacant with a worldwide selection process underway. Irishman Phil Hogan is among the front runners. While he brings a strong range of capacity and experience, he is by no means a shoo-in.

But it clearly has the potential to be the most important appointment in the organisation’s history as well as having the potential to have a real influence on individual countries’ agriculture and food policies.