mr president this report highlights the need for food security for the citizens whom we represent
it also emphasises the important public goods which farmers produce often with little or no recognition
however i feel that there is going to be a problem
i have recently heard major speeches which indicate that the common agricultural policy should actually shift to being an environmental policy
this i think will ultimately lead us to mistakenly believe that we can do without european farmers and maybe just import food from outside of the eu
this should not be the case
our farmers should be supported to produce food in a way which is not harmful to the environment and as for importing food world markets are simply too volatile both in terms of price and in terms of consistency of supply
there are a number of things that we must do
we must have a strong budget for the common agricultural policy
we must encourage young farmers into the industry to secure a future for it
we must have more research and innovation to make production methods more efficient and we must have less red tape and certainly no green tape to tie up our farmers
