ICCA_SLIDERAlfonso J. Lopez Torres.

Director of the Canarian Institute of Food Quality, ICCA.

I recently had the fortune of participating, invited by the Forum “Canary Islands in Positive”, in a new session of the same, under the title Food Sovereignty, gathered in La Laguna around Dirk Godenau, professor of the Applied Economics Area of ​​the ULL, to a large cast of experts on the subject.

The Union Treaty, defines in its Article 32 that the common market will cover agriculture and trade, and defines agricultural products as the products of the land, of livestock and fishing, as well as first transformation products directly related to those.

At the same time, the Common Agricultural Policy (PAC) enshrines food sovereignty as the right granted to people and the EU to define their agricultural and food policy based on the needs of the population and their environment, and not from the rules of international trade inscribed in the ideology of free trade.

Food sovereignty establishes for agriculture the priority of producing to feed the population, places peasants in a central role in feeding their own people, granting them a social legitimacy hitherto unrecognized.

In this way and manner, Food sovereignty not only implies a right, but also a duty: that of not harming the agricultural and food economies of other regions of the world, prohibiting dumping or any aid that allows exports at a price below the cost of production. Furthermore, it is not only responsible for feeding the current population., but also to future generations and therefore requires the conservation of natural resources and the environment..

Having said that, We can say that the CAP represents a gateway between, on the one hand, an increasingly urban world, for another, an increasingly strategic agriculture.

In the Canary Islands, Agriculture is at a crossroads of three fundamental challenges for the society of our Archipelago. First of all, the food challenge we talked about before. But also, And in second place, the challenge of natural resources, that must be used with respect and responsibility towards future generations. Finally, and thirdly, the territorial challenge and the requirement to preserve the continuity in our territory of a sector, the Agriculture, essential for the vitality of our people in a purely rural environment like ours, preserve our roots and our cultural heritage.

The Canary Islands need their farmers, but our farmers need the support of the Canary Islands. To do this, More targeted income aid is necessary, oriented towards active farmers and objectively modulated according to the needs of each type of agriculture, aid to the most fragile prevailing.

Instruments are necessary at the service of the economic and ecological competitiveness of the agricultural sector. We need incentive systems to help farmers adopt sustainable agricultural practices. We also need real safety nets, modern, effective and responsive to overcome increasingly violent and frequent crises.

It is necessary, Finally, a desire to renew rural life in the Canary Islands, increasing the means destined to help young people to settle, providing additional means for investigation, innovation and knowledge transfer, and investing in private and public infrastructure.

The coming years will be crucial to lay the foundations for strong agriculture in the Canary Islands, capable of facing changes and increasingly fierce competition, at the same time that it responds to the expectations and desires of all of us who live on this earth.

Agricultural policy is our food, but above all it is the future of more than half of our territory.