Editorial Review of the Discussion Paper of the Netherlands Presidency Food of the Future “Food of the Future – The Future of Food”

Is it not interesting and important for each of us to learn   what are we going to eat in the next future, what will our children and their children find on their tables, will the threatening scarcity of many products and water itself become soon the humanity’s dark reality, or probably the future food will be tasteless and even harmful, or it all will be …. guesses, guesses.

We cannot speak for everyone, but personally we are very demandive and rational   when it concerns the plate with food on our table.  We vote for the tasty, nutritious, seasonal and preferably locally grown food.   Yes, enjoying tasty food, terrific wine, clean water, breathing fresh air – everything that has delivered the greatest paramount necessities and pleasures in our life.

No matter how desirable and essential those paramount demands are, their delivery depends on much more than just our desires.    One of the  ruling factors in this process belongs to the   Agricultural Regulations, which especially  in the current near-scarcity conditions can  either preserve and develop our agricultural resources or  by neglecting  the necessity of decisive  actions can deprive us  from this human right?  Let us see what the current Presidency of EU thinks about it.

From its’ inception the CAP (The Common Agricultural Policy) had been designed to be one of the major pillars of the EU Policy, both for internal and its external regulations.    With the permanent changes that occur daily inside the EU and global markets, the CAP policy makers are facing lots of challenges requiring immediate attendance in order to elaborate and implement    adequate changes in the CAP regulations.

The most recent fundamental, if you will, shift in the CAP   was made in 2013.  At that time this policy was redesigned in accordance with the newly proclaimed goals, including sustainable development of the EU agriculture, support of entrepreneurship development and jobs creations in the sector.

With the EU being simultaneously the world’s top exporter   and importer of the agricultural products it is very important to timely adjust the policies to any changes. Those adjustments allow to use them in a productive way, preventing any negative effects on the economy of the Union or/and on the competitiveness of the European businesses.

Based on the Discussion Paper of the Netherlands Presidency Food of the Future “Food of the Future – The Future of Food” we will focus here on major challenges which must be addressed without any delay.

All of them are caused    by the  rapid global  technological developments,  including some  revolutionary ones (like digitalization),  extension of the  globalization process,  which results in  the internationalization of the food production and distribution,   deep changes in consumption (shift, for example to higher meat consumption), growing role of food safety, etc.   So, to be in line with and direct these changes in favor of the EU agriculture the CAP has to be reformed   in order to provide competitiveness and further successful development of the European agriculture for many years ahead.

As it is pointed out in the document we are analyzing here, the current EU Presidency is deeply concerned   with the dramatic decline of the role of the   traditional agricultural producers – the farmers   in the food chain due to the globalization.  How to regulate the inevitable process of agriculture globalization which is led  and managed by the multinational companies  and uninventively  destroy  small and medium farming all over the world for the quite understandable reasons ?    The   process of internationalization of agriculture with both feet stands on the growth of transportation of the agricultural products, necessity to provide with a growing number of new types of storages   on the way and after arrival.  On the flip side of this expansion one finds   the process of destroying of traditional eating and nutritional habits of the population, growing demand of the fossil fuel, etc.  In turn it  caused the arousal of  the protests of  European consumers who  are  growingly interested in consumption of the locally grown  products, eating  seasonally and  who   also more and more  are interested in  learning everything  about   the  conditions in which  their  food has been growing and produced.  Sometimes consumers go as far as getting to know the farmer her/himself.   We can’t agree more with  Jacques Delors’   perceptive idea that  we do not want to  transform country-side into deserts.

So,  one of the ways  to  address the challenges in question  is to  “free” European farmers from the “detailed management” of the CAP along with some subsidies in order to  let them   act more as entrepreneurs,  to widen their independency in decision –making process, in other words to make the CAP a less regulative mechanism.  Shift, as some think, should be made in favor of  the CAP  elective support   and stimulation of their  entrepreneurship activities along with the emphasis on  provision of the indispensable  Macro control where it is really needed.. This measure  will  let   farmers  plan   their production volume and further marketing of the  yields in accordance with markets’ needs.  The supporting role of the CAP could be  aimed at   maintaining and extension of   farmers activities  in  the countryside  where they traditionally  have played  key  part in  community life and  jobs creation.

Though  releasing  farmers from the micro management of the CAP regulations  in the current internationalization conditions   one should keep in mind  many  consequences  which  will accompany this  process.     Just on the surface one can see a   vitally important problem which can be turned into the threat to the public health and whole EU agricultural resources – the Food Safety issues.   The more EU market opens the higher the possibility for   threats in food safety to enter the market.    It concerns not only lots of harmful   microorganisms and dangerous microbes but also some toxic substances like very cheap (prohibited in EU) pesticides illegally imported to EU.

It goes without  saying that at the moment farmers are eager to act like  real  entrepreneurs they will be  even more inclined to do so by looking for ways to cut their expenses  (like  all farmers in Canada and USA do).  So some of them are and will be definitely seduced by the cheap toxic pesticides application.   This fact   imposes more responsibility on exercising strict CAP regulations in the area of Food Safety because the it’s negative consequences are directly connected with Public Health including the health of farmers themselves.  This measure of strengthening the macro control is mandatory for safety as well as for maintaining high competitiveness of the European agriculture in the world, among the growing number of cheap producers in emerging countries.

Of course the extensive focus on the permanent development of R&D and acceleration of implementation of technological innovations into the agricultural production can provide some revolutionary changes in the productivity keeping the EU food safe and nutritious.

To be effective, flexible and up-to-date European R&D  should be conducted on the  coordinated basis, in this case their  results and findings  will  be accessible  not only to  large scale farms in EU but also for  all European  small and medium farms.

This topic smoothly   flows into   the problem of Ecological Sustainability of agricultural production   with its’ multifaceted influence on our lives.  The agriculture itself is one of the greatest users and polluters of the arable lands and environment, though thanks to the EU regulations European agriculture is becoming more and friendlier towards the environment.   For example, the   share of greenhouse emissions in EU   has been reduced from 24% in 1990 to 10%   in 2014.   “Climate smart agricultural technologies”, in turn are the revolutionary steps intending to change the whole agricultural production chain.  This begins with production of “climate smart” crops, that extensively engages farmers in a breeding of “climate proof crops” process.  The goal of these changes is apparently indicated in the name of the technologies – they should be smart, in regard to the climate changes, not causing them but preventing where it is possible climate change negative expansion.

To summarize our editorial review of “The Food For The Future – The Future Of Food” Discussion Paper of the Netherlands Presidency we must accentuate major points.

Acknowledging all the challenges European policy makers now focus on deep CAP reforms.   First of all, it is connected with the switch from its deeply regulative approach to less regulation, while strengthening the macro level control and regulation of food safety. These measures should provide more space and freedom for an entrepreneurship progress in farming, making innovation an organic part of the agriculture, focusing more and more on preservation of local countryside community.    These and other very important modifications will be realized on the basis of the revolutionary shifts in the whole context of the EU economy and agriculture    development.  They meant the movement to the next stage of the sustainability evolution which is called the Circular Economy.  This paradigm opens new horizons for the CAP spreading far beyond 2020.

Speaking in very simple and pragmatic terms it means that we finally have to use not only smart technologies in production, but also very smart technologies in using the residues of the production and be smart consumers. Being supported and lead on the macro level by the EU government, and elaborated by thousands of startups and existing SMEs in agriculture on the micro level this tremendous unparalleled shift in European agriculture provides whole range of opportunities for the investors to participate and benefit from this process.