Press release

Paris, 24th November 2005

Working towards a World Organization for Agriculture

Agricultural prices continue to drop, the future of European agriculture is under threat, and farmers in less developed countries (LDCs) are being ruined. As representatives of the world of agriculture and public figures committed to humanitarian programs, we refuse to accept this process. We have decided to found a movement to work towards a World Organization for Agriculture (WOAgri) with regulations for the world's agriculture at last providing real perspectives for farmers throughout the world.

We believe that there is great urgency. As the WTO negotiations in Hong Kong draw near, none of the systems and international decision-making tools are capable of dealing with the challenges that agriculture represents for the future of humanity:
    - fighting poverty
    - satisfying growing food requirements,
    - ensuring the independence and sovereignty of States …

Liberalization of exchanges without any safety net can in no way improve the economic situation of the poorest countries. On the contrary, it weakens them by subjecting agriculture to speculative funds that only accentuate variations in falling prices and engendering an agricultural system founded on social and environmental dumping.

Thus the model of the World Bank, which is used for the basis of WTO negotiations, fails to integrate preferential agreements with developing countries and it totally ignores the catastrophic consequences of the disappearance of these agreements if customs duties are indiscriminatingly abolished.

And we also want to make sure that the world’s agriculture does not become concentrated in just a few geographic areas threatening food security in the event of any mishap in the climate or geopolitics.

This is why our movement wants to re-inform as many as possible on the strategic importance of agriculture, as well as to come up with the appropriate proposals to organize world governance of agriculture.

This Movement, which we have called the World Organization for Agriculture (WOAgri) is not opposed to the WTO, nor to the CAP reforms.

The WOAgri aspires to make certain objectives compatible which, as things stand, appear difficult to reconcile:
    - the fight against poverty, the terms of which are described by the Millennium Round,
    - the liberalization of exchanges sought by the Doha agreements,
    - without forgetting community preference and the sustainable development of territories within the framework of the common agricultural policy.

Our project is thus at the very heart of the challenges we face at a time when it is urgent to develop international cooperation to overcome current stumbling blocks.

For this purpose:

    - It will work through an international association, the WOAgri, bringing together a multitude of key players and decision-makers around principles we are determined to defend. Its mission will be to make sure public opinion is fully aware of the strategic importance of agriculture.

    - It mobilizes a network of international experts to create a new economic model, the NAR model, using a “game theory (interactive decision theory)“ approach to integrate the specific nature and geostrategic character of agriculture. Indeed all currently used models upon which agricultural policies are based are partial, in that they fail to take into account both the social and environmental parameters of agriculture, and its interaction with other sectors of the economy.

    - An international assessment and grading agency, the NAR Agency, will be entrusted with the mission of providing analyses that can be used as a basis for political decisions and international choices.

This is the first time that such a project for the future of world agriculture has mobilized both leaders from the agricultural world and prominent figures from outside agriculture.

On Thursday December 8th the founder members will explain why the absence of regulation in agricultural markets constitutes a real danger for world stability.

During the conference the missing elements and imperfections of the major economic models on which international commercial negotiations are based and which can lead to dangerous decisions for developing countries, will be presented and discussed.

World Organization for Agriculture

Press contact: +33 (0)1 43 06 42 70 - contact@momagri.org
Moma : 5, rue Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois - 75001 Paris