A planned pivot to food security over sustainability in the European Union’s (EU) next strategic agenda had been welcomed by an Irish farm organisation.
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) president Denis Drennan has said it welcomes “this realisation of what is a very basic proposition and one we have been highlighting for decades”.
A draft of the EU’s next strategic agenda was leaked, and Drennan said the details of the draft signalled “a turn towards food security over sustainability.
“It’s really important to note that the EU is not replacing sustainability with food security, but actually just recognising that if we cannot guarantee our own food supply to our own populations then the wider question of food sustainability becomes moot,” he added.
Food security
“If we can’t feed the populations of the great EU cities and could run out of food in weeks then the environmental question in 20 years’ time becomes less pressing,” Drennan said.
The ICMSA president said that the prioritisation and promotion of food security in the strategic agenda could not proceed on the basis of the current state of affairs.
“If this promotion of food security happens, and it is long overdue if it does, then the EU leaders must understand that there’s no simple ‘flicking of the policy switch’ that delivers the objective.
Drennan said that farming and primary food production has been “so neglected and driven down that it will take years to rebuild properly”.
He said this is “vital for the policymakers to understand” as by “just telling farmers that they’re back in favour isn’t going to be enough; they have to be able to earn a living proportionate to the level of hard work and expertise involved.
“If the EU policymakers don’t understand that, then frankly they better go back and come up with another strategic agenda,” Drennan said.