The Former Chair of Young Friends of the Countryside, Robin du Parc, spoke to Blogactiv at FFA 2010 about the role of young people in farming.

Blogactiv spoke to Willy De Greef, Secretary General of EuropaBio, at the 3rd Forum for the Future of Agriculture in Brussels. Mr De Greef explains his reasons for optimism in the amounts of food that the world produces each year. He also uses historical examples of problems and potential solutions.

At FFA 2010 Blogactiv spoke to Patrick Weiss, Project Manager for Operation Pollinator. He explains how bees play an important role in pollinating crops and the importance of their role in feeding a larger world population.

Esa Härmälä, Director General of Fertilizers Europe, spoke to Blogactiv at FFA 2010 about land use, the role of farmers, Common Agriculture Policy reform and much more.

Jagdish Natwarlal Bhagwati, Professor of Economics and Law at Columbia University and Keynote Speaker at FFA 2010, speaks to Blogactiv about the potential problems and solutions to feeding an expanded world population in the coming years.

Blogactiv was pleased to speak to Dr John Atkin about the challenges facing the world in supplying food to a growing population. He also discusses the role of agriculture in climate change and the potential role of genetically modified crops.

Former European Commissioner and Chairman of RISE Foundation discusses global food security in the context of a rising world population. He was talking to Blogactiv at the 3rd Forum for the Future of Agriculture in Brussels.

Over 800 people have registered to participate in discussions and debates on political and economic issues surrounding the future of farming.

The Forum for the Future of Agriculture 2010 (FFA 2010) which is taking place next Tuesday, March 16 from 8.45am-17.30pm, has attracted an unexpectedly large amount of interest.

A wide range of topics will be debated by international panels of over 20 different renowned speakers and moderators.

If you wish to attend or receive more information on the programme of the day, please visit our website on www.forumforagriculture.com.

We are looking forward to welcoming you at the Forum!

Farm produced commodities fuel the food industry; provide jobs and feed EU consumers, in addition to providing unpaid for public goods in terms of the environment and animal welfare.

” Farming in Europe is about more than just growing and selling. Here, farmers play a crucial role in our efforts to protect against environmental degradation; preserving the agricultural landscape and bio-diversity, sustaining air and water quality, mitigating climate change through soil and land management . We sometimes forget that our farmers produce higher quality food and in so doing have contributed to the huge improvements in people’s health & well-being over the past 50 years. This is part of the “pubic goods” they provide to society.

Trouble is, it is difficult to put a value on these public goods, since they cannot be commonly priced through the competitive market. But without them, we Europeans and our society would undoubtedly be much poorer.

If we want farmers to keep supplying these largely unpaid for public goods or indeed to provide more of them, we need to ensure they are economically viable. This requires properly functioning markets  and safety-net market supports when prices fall dramatically. Farming is a high risk business and those risks are on the increase with price and income volatility likely to escalate in future.

In the long history of EU subsidies to the agricultural sector, the CAP has represented a coherent form of intervention enabling the delivery of economic, social, and – more recently – environmental benefits.

There is no doubt that the CAP will be adjusted to meet the challenges posed by food & environmental insecurity, but at its heart it must deliver a framework in which farmers can sustain themselves. If we didn’t have farmers we would need an army of EU employed officials to do what they do! And perhaps they would not do it so well!! Farm families currently deliver economic, social & environmental benefits for themselves and for all of us - if we want this to continue, we should be careful how we reform the CAP!”

Mairead McGuinness MEP will be talking on the subject of the role of public goods in agriculture at FFA2010 on Tuesday March 16^th 2010.

This year’s exceptional line-up of internationally renowned experts has attracted a large number of registrants from all across the globe.

 Exactly one month before the Forum is being held, the number of expected participants has already climbed beyond 500.

The intriguing mixture of economists, scientists and policy makers will be discussing food security and climate change on March 16, 2010.

To join the debate on the date, we invite you to register on www.forumforagriculture.com. A detailed programme is available on the website.