A new vision for agriculture
momagri, movement for a world agricultural organization, is a think tank chaired by Pierre Pagesse, President
of Limagrain. It brings together, managers from the agricultural world and important people from external
perspectives, such as health, development, strategy and defense. Its objective is to promote regulation
of agricultural markets by creating new evaluation tools, such as economic models and indicators,
and by drawing up proposals for an agricultural and international food policy.
Edito

Observations on momagri’s second visit to Washington D.C. from 20th to 26th June 2007



Following WOAgri’s trip to Washington D.C. in April during which we made contact with numerous American public figures, a WOAgri delegation1 , led by Alain Catala (Vice President of WOAgri), Jacques Carles (General Delegate of WOAgri) and Jean Bizet (Senator of La Manche and founding member of WOAgri) visited Washington D.C. from 20th to 26th June.

The objective of this second trip was to present WOAgri’s missions, approach and work during a conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

We can make three main observations about this visit:


1. The conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) went well and we succeeded in gaining recognition for the work we are doing

The support we had from the CEIP, the number of participants, the presence of journalists, the press coverage, which is already delivering noticeable results, is tangible proof that the work we are doing has met with initial positive response in the United States.

The majority of the people we met are eagerly awaiting the first results of the NAR model and the launching of the rating agency in 2008.

We are now convinced that it is essential for us to set up partnerships with think tanks such as the CEIP in order to have a field of action large enough to deal with all the issues that WOAgri is tackling. With this objective in mind we have already made a certain number of contacts, which should produce results in the next few months.


2. We believed, during our first trip in April, that the model and rating agency were innovative and relevant solutions to the challenges Agriculture is facing in the 21st century and this was confirmed during our latest trip.


Regular attendance at the conference, a large number of positive comments, the absence of academic and institutional criticism, the awareness of the need for new indicators and their importance for the future of world governance in agriculture… all these elements highlight the fact that WOAgri has established its credibility to innovate, develop and reach its objectives in the future.

Although the main focus of this second trip was to explain the principles of the NAR model, we noticed a particular interest in the rating agency, which will have a much wider scope than the NAR model. We live in a world where misinformation is common and has many different forms, no doubt aggravated by ill-adapted models. The Americans have realized that a rating agency therefore represents a real source of added value, in the same way as Standard & Poor’s in the financial sector.

The model will begin to function at the beginning of 2008. The rating agency will be launched during the same year and the whole organization should be working together from 2009.


3. We have to make the most of this “prolonged break” in WTO negotiations to develop the WOAgri network on an international level.

The prolonged break in WTO negotiations should not be considered as a breakdown in international governance, but on the contrary as a wonderful opportunity to reexamine the international agricultural strategy in relation to the challenges it faces: environment, sustainable development, a balanced multilateral trade system…

It is in this spirit that is behind our visits to the United States, Africa, and within the EU: to develop an international network, which is the only means of representing the various faces of agriculture today.

Between now and our next visit to the United States in the first quarter of 2008, during which we will present the first results of our model and officially open the agency, our objective is to strengthen and organize our presence in the European Union and Africa.

We would like to thank all the people we met and particularly Sandra Polaski for her support and invite all those who are interested in this project to join us.

1 The delegation included Alain Catala (Vice President of WOAgri), Jacques Carles (General Delegate of WOAgri), Jean Bizet (Senator of La Manche and founding member of WOAgri), Christian Pèes (President of Euralis and founding member of WOAgri), Bertrand Munier (Chief Economist of WOAgri), and Jean-Claude Guillon (Limagrain), Carole Cuffy (Limagrain), Dominique Lasserre and Bastien Gibert (WOAgri).
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Advocating for
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Paris, 24 May 2012