4th March 2010

Bridges Weekly | OECD Ag Ministers Stress Food Security, Sustainability

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Agriculture ministers from the member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) gathered in Paris late last week to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing their agriculture and food systems and to explore how to they can make those systems more sustainable. The meeting, which marked the first time in 12 years that agriculture ministers had gathered at the OECD, took place from 25 to 26 February and was attended by the 30 rich-country OECD members, key emerging economies, as well as civil society organisations.

Food security quickly emerged as a central issue at the meeting. Recent volatility in food prices, including major spikes in 2007 and 2008, have triggered riots in some poorer nations and panic-buying in wealthy states. Since the mid-1990s, the number of malnourished people in the world has increased to over one billion, or 15 percent of the world’s inhabitants, highlighting some of the key challenges of this century as the global population continues to rise. (The ministers’ communique from the meeting is available here.)

Also discussed at length were the impacts of climate change on food supply and the ways in which the nations most adversely affected are also those with the smallest ability to cope. Agriculture, while a contributor to climate change, also has an important role to play in the reduction of greenhouse gases through practices such as soil carbon sequestration.

Ministers addressed the need for an integrated approach to enhance food security, including poverty alleviation and economic development, as well as efforts to ensure adequate supply of safe and nutritious food. They recognised the important role of trade in reliably ensuring that food can move from places it can be adequately produced to locations where it is not. For this reason, they emphasised the important role of concluding the Doha Development Agenda - the WTO’s eight-year-old global trade talks - in a comprehensive manner.

One major area of disagreement occurred over the issue of rural projects, which the EU believes are central to an integrated, multi-functional approach to agriculture. Some states, like Austria, whose agriculture minister Nikolaus Berlakovich co-chaired the meeting, called for enhanced government regulation. But New Zealand’s farm minister, David Carter, the other co-chair, advocated against government regulations and in favour of greater volumes of trade on liberalised markets.

Ministers reached the conclusion that future cooperation with countries outside of the OECD will be crucial in order to deal with the issues discussed. They noted the need for more dialogue with emerging economies, as well as collaboration with institutions and agencies like the G20, the WTO, and the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization.

While last week’s meetings did not produce specific measures or policies to address the issues discussed, members agreed on the importance of monitoring progress in the decade ahead. The member states expect to reconvene at the OECD next no later than the middle of the decade to analyse results.

More information

The chairs’ summary of the meeting is available here.

ICTSD reporting; “OECD farmers look at volatility, innovation,” MONEY CONTROL.COM, 27 February 2010; “Communiqué from the Ministers - Meeting of the Committee for Agriculture at Ministerial Level,” OECD, 26 February 2010; “Summary of the Chairs - Meeting of the Committee for Agriculture at Ministerial Level,” 25-26 February 2010.

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