Peak Food

The announcement by the agricultural commissioner that she will try to get approval to suspend set-aside shows how out of touch with the reality of the world food situation they are. They have allowed European intervention stocks to fall from 14 million tonnes to 2.5 million tons - nowhere near enough if we have a disastrous harvest, which given the extreme weather we have been having is more than a possibility.
Even now, the suspension has to be agreed by EU farm ministers and so it could be early October before we know for sure. That is a disgraceful situation. Farmers need to plan their cropping now, buy seed and start cultivations.
Fischer Boel said that global closing stocks are expected to fall to their lowest in 28 years and she expects high prices to persist due to a combination of bad harvests, as well as growing demand for cereals, in particular maize, for bio-ethenol.

The suspension of set-aside is welcome, but the commission should now be doing all it can to encourage production by other means so that grain stocks reach safe levels. Most set-aside is on poor land or is growing industrial crops, and anyone driving through mainland Europe sees very little set-aside, so the extra production may not be very great.