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2nd Forum for the Future of Agriculture

Financing & governing food & environmental security – the new challenge

Bibliothèque Solvay

Brussels

8.45am – 6.15pm, Wednesday March 18th 2009


Results of the votes (by the participants)

Executive summary

Interview with Professor Paul Krugman

Pictures from the conference

 
 

Statement on the 2nd Forum for the Future of Agriculture

PROGRAMME

8.45am            Introduction by Franz FISCHLER, Chairman of the RISE Foundation

                       Chair of the Forum for the Future of Agriculture,

 

9am                 Is a new architecture required for financing food and environmental security?

 

                       Keynote speech (by video): Paul KRUGMAN, Professor of Economics & International Affairs, Princeton University

                       Chair: Franz FISCHLER

                       Responses to the address from:

                         

9.55am             The global financial crisis and speculation on commodity markets

                        Panel Chair – Anastassios HANIOTIS, EC DG Agriculture

 

                        Presentation: Trading Practices and Price Dynamics in Commodity Markets  Stephan SCHULMEISTER – Austrian Institute of Economic Research – WIFO

 

 

11am               Do the recent problems in the global economy impact on our ability to build Sustainable Farming Systems in Europe?

 

                       Panel Chair – Roger WAITE AgraFacts

 

                       Panel Discussion I: expanding our capacity to produce efficiently

 

 

                        Panel Discussion II: protecting & enhancing the environment

 

 

2.30pm            The Nature & Scale of Public Goods Delivered by EU Land Managers

 

                       Report by the Director of the Ad hoc Task Force – RISE Foundation,

 

3.30pm            Is Europe responding effectively to the food & environmental security challenge?

                       

                       Panel Chair and introduction statement– Neil PARISH, Chair, Committee on Agriculture & Rural Development, European Parliament

 

 

4.45pm              Has the world responded effectively to the challenges of food and environmental security?

 

                        Panel Chair – Carlo TROJAN Chairman - IPC

 

Presentation: 

 

Are we on track?

           

5.45pm            Closing presentations and debate: The impact of the financial crisis on food and environmental security

           



6.15pm            Conclusion: remarks from the Conference Chair

BACKGROUND

 

In March 2008, Syngenta and the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) came together to create a new forum in which the future of agriculture could be debated, where the main challenges facing the sector could be addressed, and the necessary responses understood, discussed and agreed. The inaugural meeting in 2008 focussed on the need to agree the objectives for European agriculture in the 21st Century against the backdrop of rapidly rising food prices, increased demand, particularly from China and India, and poor harvests, which had begun to stretch the supply chain to the limit.

 

Today, the underlying structural problems for global food production remain but the 2009 Forum on the Future of Agriculture (FFA) will take place in a different world to that of a year ago. Instead, the global financial crisis has diverted attention away from all other issues, including food security, and consumed the attention of political leaders, policy makers, legislators and regulators in co-ordinating an effective response to the problem. Their attention is now and will be focussed for the foreseeable future on trying to restore the health of the financial sector and the global economy.

 

Yet the global population is still rising and the projections for it to touch 9 billion by 2050 remain the same. Food consumption is increasing, spurred on not just by the number of mouths to feed but also by changing calorific and dietary demands, particularly in Asia. At the same time, ongoing problems with trade and distribution of food, access to water for agriculture, the land available for cultivation, and the looming impact of climate change, continues to exert pressure on the supply side.

 

The world may have changed since FFA 2008, but the food and environmental security challenges remain the same – to sustainably increase food production in a way that optimises the use of our natural resources, ensuring that healthy, nutritious, and varied food is universally accessible at an affordable price.

 

But to bring this about, many commentators and analysts have pointed to the need for a fundamental overhaul of the way we govern and – importantly – finance, food and environmental security. They argue that the financial crisis may have diverted attention but it should not detract from our determination to tackle the long term structural deficiencies in food supply and distribution in a sustainable way. Indeed, the global financial crisis has created such a state of flux that a unique and historical opportunity may now exist to re-order the world in a way that enables us to better respond to the great societal problems of our time, particularly how we harness our natural resources to feed our people.

 

FFA 2009 will therefore seek to address the subject of how we govern and provide finance for food and environmental security, against the backdrop of this global economic crisis. It will pose a number of fundamental questions:

 

These are questions that are key to the debate on the future of agriculture in Europe and around the world. They need to be highlighted and not lost sight of in the urgency and determination to solve the global economic crisis because food and environmental insecurity have the potential to have a greater impact over the longer term on the world than the economic travails of 2008.

 

We look forward to welcoming you to FFA2009 and debating these issues with you!