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Agriculture as provider of public goods in the European Union
by Paul-Florent Montfort, Analyst, momagri
Agriculture is a strategic sector because of its interaction to three overriding issues: food security, economic development and environmental concerns. For that reason, in 2007 momagri recommended to list agriculture as a global public good insofar as it serves as source of multiform public goods. As momagri stated then, “a global public good is a good that must be managed collectively, at the international level, based on the principle of subsidiarity, that is to say any field of activity that can be better managed by global governance than by national or sub-regional governance.”1
Even if its scope is more limited than the above-mentioned definition, the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP)2 December 2009 study attempts to list the environmental and social public goods generated by European farmers and raises the argument for public intervention in the matter. While the debate on the future of the CAP intensifies as we near 2013 when it must be reformed, the report adds another reason to justify public intervention in a free-market economy, if only because the very nature of public goods is such that their supply cannot be assured through trade systems.
“There is a wide range of public goods associated with agriculture, many of which are highly valued by society. The most significant of these are environmental––such as agricultural landscapes farmland, biodiversity, water quality and availability, soil functionality, climate stability (carbon storage), air quality, resilience to flooding and fire––as well as a diverse series of more social public goods, including food security, rural vitality and farm animal welfare and health.”
But the IEEP document goes even further, since its conclusions assert that the supply of many public goods generated by agriculture is still inadequate. Such supply could even shrink in the future because of the threats presented by climate change or commodity price volatility that infringe the staying power of agriculture, and consequently the public goods it supplies or uses.
This is the reason why the study indicates the need “to increase the level of public intervention” and to uphold a strong regulation policy to safeguard agriculture and the public goods it infers.
However, while momagri recognizes the pertinence of the study, which shows the mental shift regarding the privileged ties between agriculture and global public goods, we also want to stress the need to take into account the strategic aspect of agriculture as global public good, in addition to its environmental and social features.
Regarding the requisite of food security for instance, the IEEP document indicates that the risk is relatively small for the European Union. Yet, if Europe still maintains some production reserves––thanks in particular to its new members––the risk of seeing its food independence jeopardized in the future nevertheless exists. This is exactly the same issue than the one concerning climate change: Consequences are currently negligible; but if the international community and the European Union are meeting the problem head on, it is because the risk that the situation could worsen in the future is a serious one.
In fact, we must recommend a framework including agriculture as global public good in itself, and not only as supplier of public goods. As outlined by Jacques Carles3 , placing agriculture on the roster of public goods is legitimized on three levels:
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1. “At a primary level, which resembles an economic definition in the broadest sense: its links with the environment and the use of natural resources, such as water, air and land, mean that agriculture is a global public good because it results from the use of these resources and also because of the scope of agriculture’s externalities. Thus, agriculture must not be excluded on the pretext that a monetary value is attached to the trade of agricultural goods. Quite contrarily, its unique nature proves that agricultural products are one of a kind.
2. At a secondary level : the undeniable bonds between agriculture and the fight against poverty, healthcare, food security and meeting the basic right to food, identify agriculture as a global public good due to its humanitarian and social consequences. In other words, agriculture first and foremost impacts the condition of man.
3. At a tertiary level, that I would describe as “international regulatory service”. Agriculture and international agricultural trade call for global cooperation because, in the absence of such regulation, markets left to their own devices produce negative consequences on poorest and wealthiest countries alike. This represents the major issue regarding agricultural price volatility, which can only be stabilized through adequate regulation tools.”
For these reasons, it is vital to list agriculture as such on the roster of global public goods and to implement genuine global institutional means to ensure its across-the-board implementation. Indeed, “a Global Public Good only truly becomes such once we have created the conditions under which it can be managed through international cooperation using adequate tools.”4 In this instance, it is indeed urgent to deal with the issues regarding agriculture, such as food security for all.
1 Please see momagri October 15, 2007 editorial by Jacques Carles “Managing Agriculture as a Global Public Good”.
2 http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/analysis/external/public-goods/index_en.htm
3 Please see momagri October 15, 2007 editorial by Jacques Carles “Managing Agriculture as a Global Public Good”.
4 Ibidem
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Advocating for
agricultural market
regulation and global
food governance | |
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