The Need to Unify Views on Agriculture

During the 17th Annual Conference of French Ambassadors held in Paris on August 26, French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the incoherence in the messages delivered by various international organizations, chiefly concerning agriculture. “What is happening is a form of complete schizophrenia. One is completely baffled between what is said at the WTO––competition at any cost, no more aid to agriculture––and what is said at the FAO––more for agriculture! Who can get it? Membership is the same yet the views are contradictory. Is it not time to combine ideas to deliver a coherent message? The proliferation of international organizations is itself a real problem,” stated the President.

By stressing the contradictions that currently illustrate the issue of liberalizing international agricultural markets, the French President points a finger at a genuine problem: the lack of coherence regarding the international organizations’ recommendations and decisions that shape our future for issues as strategic as agricultural exchanges. Yet, the recent financial crisis at least did provide a salutary feature: Bringing together nearly all market-players around the necessity to regulate international finance. Must we wait for a similar crisis in agriculture so that decision-makers are of one mind regarding the future of international agriculture?