Land Grab

Stagnating growth in European agricultural output is putting immense pressure on the natural environment of developing countries.

Stagnant European agricultural productivity threatens EU food security and the environment of the developing world

London, 3rd November, Crop World 2010 conference.

The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2010-2019 has forecast less than 4% growth in EU-27 agricultural output. This rate of growth is at odds with calls to improve Europe’s food security, and threatens the continued degradation of natural areas in the developing world as land is cleared for farming.

Given the wholesale recognition at Crop World 2010 of the need to sustainably increase food productivity, including the main thrust of the presentation given by Sir John Beddington (Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government, UK), we (Europeans) must recognise where we are starting from. The OECD-FAO’s Agricultural Outlook 2010-2019 makes some startling observations as it looks at where our food will come from over the next ten years. It reports very positive projections for food production growth in the US, Canada, Australia, China, India, Russia and Latin America at levels ranging from 15 to 40%, based mainly on yield increases. "In contrast, over the same period, net agricultural output in the EU-27 will have grown less than 4%".

The report says that “production in the Sub-Sahara region of Africa is expected to be stagnant in per capita terms, as production barely keeps pace with population growth still averaging around 2.2% per year. In the EU-27 production is also stagnant. Growth in consumption on a per capita basis in this region will need to be met by imports". Incredibly, agricultural production in Europe, a continent with some of the world’s richest agricultural resources, is depicted as stagnant and on a par with one of the most desperately barren regions of the Earth! It’s not a resource issue, it’s a policy issue with direct outcomes for trade, climate, biodiversity and world hunger.

Europe is the world’s biggest importer of food. This means Europe’s enormous influence on global food markets, prices and distribution must be taken into account. A recent study by the Humboldt Institute has demonstrated that reducing productivity in Europe has and will lead to expansion of land dedicated to European food needs in the developing world. The report indicates this is already happening: right now, an area of farmland the size of Germany is serving European food needs in the developing world, risking further alienation of food from local populations, destruction of rainforests and other natural habitats. The OECD-FAO report calls this process a “land grab”. The Humboldt study shows that Europe will accelerate farmland expansion if it does not increase productivity on European farms because elsewhere in the world farmland will be developed to meet EU needs.

We need more food not more farmland and Europe must do its part. More of our food needs could actually be produced in Europe with a policy framework that actively supports increasing agricultural production through the sustainable use of crop science.