omniture

An International Task Force to Speedily Launch the World Agriculture Organization

momagri
2008-06-05 03:58 857

PARIS, June 5 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ --

Jacques Carles, co-founder and Executive Vice President of momagri, recommends the creation of an international task force to set forth the mission of a World Agriculture Organization to resolve the current global food crisis.

This task force would unite the expertise of major global organizations concerned: the FAO, the World Bank, the IMF, the UNCTAD, the UNEP, the IFAD and the WTO.

It represents a crucial decision that the Global Food Safety Conference in Rome must make, so that agriculture can reclaim its strategic role in the fight against poverty and in the preservation of the environment.

Indeed it is imperative to establish a Global Agricultural Policy and it seems no longer admissible to accept such a division of accountability and such a disengagement from agriculture.

- Let's not forget that only 4% of public aid to development is earmarked for agriculture, aid that accounts for less than 0.4% of the world GNP;

- Let's not forget that the current crisis was not foreseen by prospective models since none are tailored to agriculture's specificities and its inherent significant price volatility;

- Let's not forget that food safety is a fundamental stake for the future of mankind and that we must implement an international system of regulations in agricultural markets;

- And last but not least, let's not be mistaken: Many consider that agricultural prices will remain high, whereas we are only facing a circumstantial peak. This fact was demonstrated during our presentation of the momagri model to the European Parliament last April 9.

The examination of these results for the next few years indicates that agricultural price fluctuation will increase, notably due to speculation.

Because the root of the problem lies in the permanent unrest influencing agricultural markets, it represents a key menace for global agriculture.

It is now time to react and remove agriculture from WTO negotiations since trade only involves 10% of agricultural products worldwide.

As France gets ready to assume the presidency of the European Union, momagri--the think tank co-founded and chaired by Pierre Pagesse--will soon introduce the framework of a future Global Agriculture Organization, including its founding principles and organizational structure, that would serve as a working document for the future task force.

http://www.momagri.org

Source: momagri
Keywords: Agriculture
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