Rio+20 “The future we want”

Shared global responsibility and implications for the EU CAP reform process

© APRODEV

In a letter for Commissioner Cioloş published today, APRODEV – a church-based NGO that aims to influence decision-making processes in the European Union to promote justice, peace, and the eradication of poverty in developing countries – has urged the EU to support actionable commitments in the Zero Draft document for Rio+20, to ensure global food security and the urgent transition to sustainable agriculture worldwide.

Referring to the current CAP proposals the letter states that:

The greening measures in the CAP reform proposals are a first step and seem to be a composition of different isolated measures across pillar I and II. The concept of greening in the CAP can neither be considered a comprehensive policy framework on sustainable agriculture and rural development nor are the greening measures consistently applied throughout the proposals. Further, the CAP 2013 proposals prioritise international competitiveness over socio-economic and environmental sustainability.

The association recommends that the EU CAP reform should respond to the shared global responsibility as outlined in the UNCED 1992, Agenda 21: Support culturally and locally suited food supply and consumption patterns and prevent the substitution of local food by imports, promote the diversification of agricultural production systems and the efficient use of domestic resources, limit the negative effects of global productivity increases, prevent soil degradation and accept ecological limits.

Agenda 21 also appeals to countries to come up with joint solutions for a common sustainable future. Implicitly, this means that efficiency gains for sustainable productivity increases are best made in the South and that the EU should focus on reducing waste rather than on increasing production.

In response to Agenda 21 and to the new dimensions of resource-scarcity, APRODEV calls upon the EU to make bold commitments in the Rio+20 document that show clearly how Europe will implement the transition towards a sustainable and resilient food system which maintains biodiversity and addresses the needs of the poor.

Read the full letter on the APRODEV site here