Tale: Landbrukspolitiske toppmøtet i Berlin

Chairperson and colleagues,

Let me first thank my colleague Mrs Aigner for hosting this conference on global food security. It is a great opportunity to discuss this issue now that we are gathered here at Grune Woche. 

Food security will remain one of the main challenges for the world over the coming decades. Agricultural production worldwide must increase if we are to realize the first Millennium Goal of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. 

In order to ensure food security, the global community will have to face a related challenge, namely climate changes. Extreme weather and rising temperatures put crops at risk worldwide. Developing countries are particularly vulnerable to the changing weather conditions, and farmers often do not have the necessary tools to adapt. Therefore, we need an approach that ensures a production increase based upon environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient methods. We must realize that this will be one of the most important challenges in the future, and should be given high priority.

I also support many of the objectives that are emphasized in the discussion paper prepared for this meeting. In order to increase agricultural production in developing countries, issues such as strengthening rural areas, increasing investments in agriculture and improving agricultural research must be addressed.   

Management of natural resources as such should be given equally high priority. In countries with unfavorable natural conditions, preservation of land and water resources are a prerequisite for sustainable agricultural production. Land degradation must be fought globally by reducing loss of soil resources through protection of productive areas. 

The food crisis is thus a global challenge, and calls on our joint efforts and shared responsibility. The international community must work together to establish a global partnership for food security. I would like to see the UN High Level Task Force on the Food Crisis take a more proactive role in facilitating a global partnership. However, what we really need is to make the more permanent existing global architecture for food security more coherent and functional. FAO – with its comprehensive mandate for food security, nutrition and agricultural development – is in principle a corner stone in this architecture.

During the last year we have experienced three related and huge challenges for food production and food security – climate change, extreme fluctuations in food prices and the economical and financial crisis. As politicians we are confronted with new and very demanding questions.

I would like to stress that the challenge of securing global food supply implies that all countries have to make use of its potential for agricultural production. No country can afford to abandon domestic food production and rely exclusively on import to feed its population. Instead, all countries have a political and moral obligation to produce food for its own population. This is a challenge also for politicians and agricultural policy in industrialized countries.

When the food prices went high last year, we saw many countries stick to export taxes and restrictions. Such measures are obviously harmful to markets, and it was a forceful reminder that in the end - if food security is at stake – politicians and nations will first and foremost be obliged to keep up food security for their own population. 

Norway has challenging conditions for food production, and a considerable import of food. It is our nationally defined goal to ensure sustained food production for domestic consumption all over the country. Production for the national market plays an important role in ensuring national food security.

The renewed focus on agriculture shows promise of a global commitment to promote agricultural production worldwide. As donor nations we should now give new impetus to agriculture and food production in our developing assistance.

Food security will be a crucial point when developing agricultural policies for  the future and can only be solved by national and global strategies. Let us keep up the momentum and ensure the establishment of a long-lasting global partnership for food security. 

Thank you,