The industrialized Western countries believe that environmentally harmful agricultural subsidies should be gradually abolished. At their six-yearly summit on global food systems, the OECD countries called for a country-by-country study of agricultural subsidies that sustain harmful climate and environmental impacts.
The OECD report notes that while the EU promoted ‘green’ agriculture in 2021 with the new CAP, it also states that the current eco-schemes will not be sufficient. The scientists recommend that the EU should ‘price’ climate and environmental polluting emissions (i.e., fines and levies on emissions).
The OECD food summit also points out that many governments and international organizations such as the EU have reduced their subsidies for research and innovation in recent years.
More needs to be done in the next ten years to combat food waste, both in production and processing in agriculture and manufacturing, as well as further along the food chain. The OECD experts say that the global food system can only function if it is sustainable and does not impede the United Nations’ international Millennium Development Goals.
In the concluding declaration of their summit in Paris, it is stated that the world population will approach ten billion in the coming decade, that the demand for food will increase, but that agriculture ‘will have to do more with less.’ It is expected that less land will be available (and more vertical farming), and that fewer laborers will be employed (and more machines, digitization, and robotization).
As a result of such profound shifts, farmers worldwide will have to consider that they will need to supplement their income partly in other ways.
The recommendations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation are not binding for the 38 member industrialized countries, but they have a major impact on many national and European policy preparations. Next week, the future agricultural and food strategy will also be high on the agenda at the international COP Climate Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, which begins today.