Agriculture

About the Trialogue and the Common Agricultural Policy – CAP.

During 2004 until 2006, the Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF), the Church of Sweden and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) have met to discuss how the agricultural policy of the European Union – the Common Agricultural Policy, or “CAP” – might be developed so that it both benefits Swedish agriculture and renders the food supply in developing countries more secure. The discussions have been called “the Trialogue”.

The focus of the Trialogue was limited to exploring the relationships between food security in developing countries and agricultural policy with a view to defining common ground, a set of ideas that unite the three organizations and, secondly, to draft joint proposals relating to agricultural policy and trade policies relating to food.  As a consequence, many other relevant policies and factors for change will not be treated here.

In short the report states that:

• To favour food security, resources must be directed to promoting agriculture in developing countries, including local markets.
• Poor countries in chronic need of food imports must be able to finance their imports.
• Trade in food is different than other trade due to e g the constraints of the biological production system. Therefore the market can not by itself control where food production is located.
• Farming needs public support  but it should be limited to payment for public goods and reimbursement for additional costs associated with the fulfillment of societal goals.
• If public support has trade distrorting effects, the poorest countries must have the possibility to compensate for negative effects.

Please read the full report for more detailes.