The Dilemmas of Globalisation;
towards a re-valuation of agriculture
Some 2.4 billion people are directly involved in agricultural production world wide. A lot is expected from agriculture these days: to provide sufficient nourishment, a sustainable use of inputs, the management of natural resources, help combating global warming and providing social and ecological services to society.
Meanwhile at Geneva the so called Development Round of Trade Negotiations within the World Trade Organisation has been in a deadlock for almost two years now and an agreement acceptable for all parties concerned is not to be expected in the near future. It is again agriculture that plays a key role in the liberalisation debate.
It is in this context that the Groupe de Bruges felt the need to write this book to offer a critical approach that lays bare the underlying and often faulty assumptions that determine the liberalisation debate. It then poses four dilemmas that are critical for the future of mankind in general and for agriculture in particular: reducing poverty; producing suffi cient food for 9 billion people in 2050 in a sustainable way; the battle between food, feed and fuel and lastly the struggle between nature and agriculture.
In this setting the Groupe executes a critical review of the European Common Agricultural Policy, one of the cornerstones of the success of the European Project and offers long term recommendations for a future policy based on the crucial notion that we need farmers and that a re-valuation of agriculture is therefore necessary.
The text of this book can also be downloaded from our website www.groupedebruges.eu
blz.: 238
formaat: paperback 14,8 x 21 cm
