A conversation with...Frans Timmermans, EVP European Commission & Thierry Krier, CEMA President

Well, you know, we are now in the middle of negotiating with the Parliament and Council the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, and the CAP is going to be essential to move ahead with the reforms that are needed in the agricultural sector. I hope we can come to an agreement, especially on making it possible to work with so-called eco-schemes that would facilitate the agricultural sector to move towards more sustainable ways of production. If I go back to the origins of the CAP, what did it want to achieve? It wanted to achieve basically three things: first, that the European Union would be able to feed itself; second, that food would be available at acceptable prices for everyone; and third, that we would do something about the rampant poverty in rural areas, so guarantee decent income for farmers. I think the CAP for a long time has been able to achieve these goals, especially feeding Europe with very high quality food at very modest prices. The one element where we are struggling is to guarantee decent incomes for all our farmers. If we continue with the intensification of our agriculture over the last decades, we will go way beyond the natural boundaries our planet is giving us. So we need to learn to produce good quality, affordable food for up to 10 billion people on earth, but staying within the planet's boundaries. That is the big challenge. It is feasible if we are successful in ecological agriculture, if we take into account the need to protect biodiversity, if we can do agriculture with less pesticides, less fertilizers, less medication in animal husbandry, and if we can inform consumers better on which food products are good for them. Farm to Fork is about offering a sustainable future for our farming communities, offering good quality healthy food to better-informed citizens, within planetary boundaries. I will be the first to admit it's an incredibly complicated and huge challenge, but it's unavoidable because if we don't do this, planetary boundaries will impose themselves, and droughts, wildfires, floods will get out of control. The first victims will be our farming communities.

I can't stress enough how critical your contribution is to the success of the new CAP and the Farm to Fork strategy. We need your expertise. If we want to feed up to 10 billion people and stay within planetary boundaries, we have to introduce the highest level of technology, even develop new ones, so that even the smallest farmer has access to high tech. That's the only way to organize precision farming, up to pixel farming. It has to be accessible to the whole farming community, not just large scale. We need to lower the threshold of high-tech uptake. How? First, bring broadband everywhere in rural Europe. Second, bring farming closer to cities or within cities. Third, develop better logistics infrastructure. Fourth, make high-tech low threshold so every farmer can operate it. Modern technology is high-tech and low threshold. Every farmer should know exactly when to use water, fertilizer, seeds, and harvest. For that, we need machinery and inventions from your sector. We at the European Commission want to stimulate that through research networks. I'm from the Netherlands; we have experience. This is the future. Young people in farming communities are looking for this. Families worry their children won't want to farm, but with new technology, we offer a vision of a sustainable future: not working 20 hours a day for low income, having holidays, and being custodians of nature, rewarded for that. Farming will be high-tech, but it brings us closer to nature, not dissociates us.

First of all, let me be very clear: this is not going to be easy. It is a fundamental transformation and comes with risks. But you have to compare that to the consequences of doing nothing. The risks of doing nothing for farming communities are way bigger. Already we see devastating effects of droughts, wildfires, erratic storms. If we don't limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, these will get out of control. Pandemics will increase. So change is the only way forward. Where do we concentrate? Start with farmers' income. That was the beginning of the CAP 50 years ago. The only way to convince the farming community to embrace change is to guarantee them a decent income, perhaps not only from producing food but also as custodians of nature. Their societal role warrants protection of their income. Then look at other issues: how much production, use of technologies, fertilizers, pesticides. Start from strengthening rural communities. Then you can look at food quality and fair pricing. Food has become very cheap, but increasing prices affects poorer people. We need to look at fiscal policies to reduce the impact, such as reducing taxation on food. We need to ensure those who produce food get a fair price. My main message: this is a fundamental transformation we must embrace. If we don't learn to live within planetary boundaries, we will face violent conflicts over water and arable land, huge migration. Let's not underestimate the threats. The new CAP and Farm to Fork can deliver opportunities. We can make farming more resilient and offer a future young farmers will embrace within the limits of our natural environment, supported by a European population that wants sustainability and is worried about climate and biodiversity.