Farmers' Assembly: Agricultural production will not be able to meet demand in the future

Tomorrow, September 30, Maira Dzelzkalēja, Deputy Chairwoman of the Board of the Association "Farmers' Council" and Vice-President of COPA, representing the European farmers' umbrella organization COPA, will speak at the informal meeting of the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries in Milan, where she will present the opinion of farmers on the European Union's broader involvement in the world's food supply in order to reduce the number of hungry people.

Maira Dzelzkalēja, Deputy Chairwoman of the Board of the Association "Farmers' Council": "By 2050, the world population will increase to nine billion people. Although in one The latest reports on global food insecurity show that the number of hungry people has decreased by more than 200 million since the early 1990s, One of the most important agricultural challenges in the coming decades will be to provide food for the world's population.Economists have confirmed concerns that in the future agricultural production may not be able to meet global demand, prices will become higher and more volatile. In order to secure food, we, the farmers of the European Union, must work in an economically sound, ecologically and socially responsible way.

I believe that in this context it is particularly important that each country can maintain its production capacity, be able to provide itself with food and not depend on potentially unreliable cooperation partners. For example, as a result of the Russian Federation's food embargo, Latvian and other dairy farmers in our region currently receive barely 0.20 euros per liter of milk. Therefore, the informal Council of Ministers must discuss possible solutions both in the current situation and how similar situations could be addressed in the future.”

The informal meeting of the EU Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers is being hosted by Italy, the country holding the presidency of the Council of the EU, which has set as one of the goals of its presidency the European Union's broader involvement in the world's food supply.