Brian Gardner's Blog

Archives for EU Priorities and Opinion

MORE FOOD WITHOUT MORE LAND?

December 20, 2012

If an increasing world population is to be adequately fed, food production has to be increased. Estimates vary on just how big the increase has to be. They range between increases of 45-50 per cent on the optimistic side, to the worst case scenario of over 80 per cent by the mid-century. What most analysts… » read more

Posted by Brian Gardner

Climate Change, Environment, EU Priorities and Opinion, Food & Consumers

, , , ,

FARM COUNCIL COMPROMISE LIKELY TO END IN NO REFORM

December 11, 2012

It is becoming ever clearer that there is no real intention on the part of the European Union’s agriculture ministers to agree any effective reforms of the EU agriculture policy. The Council of Agriculture ministers meeting at the beginning of this month indicated only too clearly that the final agreement for the 2014-20 MFF will… » read more

Posted by Brian Gardner

CAP Reform, EU Priorities and Opinion, Food & Consumers, Sustainable Dev.

, , , ,

CAP reform or mere trimming?

December 6, 2010

The European Commission’s proposals for so-called ‘reform’ of the common agricultural policy are nothing of sort. They are basically a justification for continuing the present policy into the post-2013 budget phase largely unchanged, As farm commissioner Dacian Ciolos has had to admit, the policy is currently suffering a ‘crisis of legitimacy’. Though he may be… » read more

Posted by Brian Gardner

CAP Reform, English, Environment, EU Priorities and Opinion, Food & Consumers, Sustainable Dev.

, , ,

REBATE ARGUMENT SHOULD CONCENTRATE MINDS

September 8, 2010

The regular ritual verbal punch-up over the disposition of the European Union’s budget is once again in the offing. Opening salvoes have already been fired from the two traditionally entrenched sides of the Channel. The European Commission, in its hopefully impartial role, has called for a completely new approach, rising above the inevitable squabble over… » read more

Posted by Brian Gardner

CAP Reform, English, EU Priorities and Opinion, Public Affairs

, , ,

Brian Gardner's Blog

Commentary on European developments from the perspective of long term professional interest in European and international trade, agriculture and food policy, nurtured over three decades spent in Brussels observing and analysing the development of the CAP.

Post Brexit, new relationships between the UK and the EU and the UK and the rest of the world are a major pre-occupation. My book ‘European Agriculture: Policies, Production and Trade’ is a distillation of this experience. More recently, my analysis of the politics and technicalities of feeding 9 billion people by the mid-century is  ‘Global Food Futures – Feeding the world in 2050’, published by Bloomsbury. I continue to observe European  policy as it copes with the challenges of UK isolationism, Europe-US challenges, trade liberalisation, climate change and other environmental problems. My assessment of the realities for UK agriculture after 2020 are  set out in a recent report for Agra Europe: Preparing for Brexit.


Advertisement