| 25/04/2008
Euroview
By Jonathan Evans, Conservative MEP for Wales
Let farmers produce food! That’s what
my Conservative colleagues and I called for in the European Parliament
in Strasbourg last week.
As food security concerns grow amid rising food prices, I believe
that the answer is to allow farmers to produce food free from market
and government interference.
Consumers are feeling the squeeze as the price of their shopping
basket continues to rise. A recent report out by internet price
comparison site moneysupermarket.com showed that key staple items
have shot up, with free-range eggs up by 50 per cent and a loaf
of bread by 20 per cent.
The European Parliament debated the issue of food security last
week and Conservatives argued that farmers must finally be allowed
to respond to the market.
Three years ago wheat a tonne of wheat was worth 90 Euros,
today it is worth close to 270 Euros per tonne. This rapid
price rise is causing concern around the world with Argentina slapping
huge export taxes on its agricultural production and politicians
in Europe, including both the French and German Agricultural Ministers,
calling for a return to direct subsidies for food production.
We have sleepwalked into this situation. Our farmers have been
champing at the bit to produce food for the last twenty years,
but they have been stifled by the bureaucracy of the Common Agricultural
policy.
Many have also been driven out of business in recent years because
the prices paid for their produce have been too low. Farming unions
have warned for years that our increasing dependence on imported
food would lead to issues with food security. But no one in Government
was listening then.
They are listening now. What we need now is to free our farmers
from government interference, and allow them to do what they
do best, producing food. The market price now provides a huge
incentive for farmers and if we reduce bureaucracy and red tape,
farmers will meet the challenge of producing more food and they
would be absolutely delighted to do so. They have been waiting to
do it for 20 years!
Globally there is a huge potential to produce more food. Just look
at Zimbabwe, which ten years ago was producing food for itself and
half of Southern Africa, yet now it can't feed itself. This
is not down to drought, or climate change, or biofuels, this is
down to the country being run by a mad dictator. Without good governance
in the wider world, we will never fully realise our agricultural
potential.
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