madam president as one of the authors of this report can i first thank the political groups who worked very closely together to come up with a text which does not have amendments to it
i think we should all be very pleased with that
we have different opinions on many things but i think on the general point of wanting to do the right thing to assist in feeding the hungry of the world this text is a step in the right direction
i was also the author of a report on global food security and the cap in the previous mandate so i have worked very hard on this issue
can i make one very simple point which seems to escape many it is farmers who will feed the world if they are given the right climate and i mean that in the broadest context to do that particular job
the rest of us will talk about it
it is our responsibility to develop and put in place the policies to allow our farmers to produce food
they will respond if they have two basic elements one is decent prices and the other is stable incomes
the recent volatility has hit both of those and farming cannot survive on that
lest i run out of time and as one of the authors i beg your forbearance on this please do not demonise the common agricultural policy
some of the arguments made now are historic and out of date we have reformed absolutely this policy and perhaps without the cap we might have greater problems of food insecurity within the european union
why do we not adopt the best parts of it and ask the developing world to take onboard a common agricultural policy
because let us be very tough on this we should not let the developing world's governments off the hook it is their responsibility to use the development aid properly it is our responsibility to ensure that more money is spent and invested in agriculture
i think it is time to stop pussyfooting around this issue and be tough with governments and tough with ourselves
we have a moral responsibility and we are prepared to take it on board
