Food Security: An Absolute Priority for the G-20 Summit

PARIS - The completion of the Doha Round will obviously be presented at the
impending G-20 Summit on April 2, as the solution to ward off protectionism.
Yet, latest simulations by the momagri model prove that non-regulated
liberalization in agriculture would, in the next 15 years, lead to:

- A drastic drop in farmers’ revenues in poorest nations (less 60
percent),

- A lasting deterioration for importing developing nations (such as China
and India: less 30 to 40 percent),

- An decline tendency for developed nations (with losses of 30 percent
over several years),

- While only exporting emerging nations, such as Brazil, would come out
unscathed.

(Logo: www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081013/324331 )

What would the results be? An upheaval in the global
equilibrium principally translating into the impoverishment–or even
disappearance–of agricultural economies in countries with the highest
population growth. Europe and the US would also record massive farming and
agribusiness job losses and Europe’s food security would therefore be called
into question.

The big winners? Investment funds that purchase millions of
hectares, especially in Africa, because they will fully benefit from lower
tariff barriers.

Can we take the risk that global agriculture experiences in the future
the same fate as that borne by financial markets?

Without the implementation of global regulation to prevent the
destabilizing–or even devastating–consequences of price volatility, a WTO
agreement for agriculture would generate a food crisis that would be far more
dangerous than the current financial crisis. Governments would then have to
resort to protectionist measures to guarantee their foremost responsibility:
food security for their populations. Far from being the development round,
Doha could thus become the round of turmoil.

How must we tackle this “foreseeable catastrophic scenario”,
which further compounds with threats of possible conflicts dealing with
access to energy and water resources? To prevent this, launching global
governance for agriculture is thus imperative:

- To promote the goal of food security in a regulated market,
that is to say the search for collective food solvability;

- By including worldwide food security as one of the stakes of
the G-20 Summit, just as financial market regulation or economic
recovery;

- On the short term, by rejecting the public impact of any
political statement around a Doha agreement on agriculture with the
sole purpose of easily restoring confidence on a subject where
breakdowns have followed one another for the past seven years!

Redefining the purposes of the Doha Round and not using it as
symbol for the fight against protectionism is therefore a main concern for
the G-20 Summit.

About momagri

momagri is a Paris-based think tank that promotes a new vision
for agriculture. Founded and chaired by Pierre Pagesse, Chairman of the
French Groupe Limagrain, the organization includes representatives of
agricultural enterprises and officials from the healthcare, economic
development, strategy and defense fields. It aims to support the regulation
of agricultural markets by way of new evaluation tools (such as economic
models and indicators) and new proposals for an international agriculture and
food governance based on free-trade principles.

www.momagri.org

Source: momagri

Press Contact: Dominique Lasserre, +33(0)1-43-06-42-70, dominique.lasserre at momagri.org