The EU imports far more agricultural products than it exports. This is an indirect form of land grabbing, von Witzke argues.
Combating EU “land grabbing” by promoting agricultural research
Interview with Prof. Dr. Harald von Witzke, International Agricultural Trade and Development Institute of the Humboldt University, Berlin
It sounds like a modern form of colonialism: In order to secure its own food supplies, the EU indirectly lays claim to nearly 35 million hectares of arable land outside its borders, as shown by a study done by Professor Harald von Witzke. Witzke, who directs the department of International Agricultural Trade and Development at the Humboldt University in Berlin, is calling for the EU to raise its levels of agricultural efficiency in order to diminish the amount of land it uses outside Europe. To do so, it needs to promote agricultural research.
Professor von Witzke, your latest study is entitled “Can more efficiency prevent increasing ‘land-grabbing’ outside Europe?” Does that mean we Europeans are taking land that doesn’t belong to us?
The term “land grabbing” sounds like a provocation. But it immediately gets across the idea that the EU is doing something it shoudn’t. It is using an ever greater amount of land in less developed countries to meet its own needs for agricultural products. Granted, it is not buying up arable land, like China or Saudi Arabia have already done. But it imports far more agricultural products than it exports. This indirect form of land grabbing has not entered public awareness. But it’s still wrong.
What is the matter with purchasing products from developing and newly industrialized countries?
In principle there is nothing to criticize when countries engage in free trade with food products. On the contrary, it makes sense to grow crops wherever the best conditions for them are found. After all, planting crops where they yield rich harvests uses less land than planting them in places where they need a lot of extra care and resources. Despite its favorable conditions for most agricultural products, however, the EU has taken on the role of importer for vegetables, meat and even sugar. Grain is one of the few exceptions. For it we use ‘virtual’ land.
Please explain what you mean by ‘virtual land’.
Here’s an example: In the 2007/2008 season, the EU imported more than ten million tons of corn, while exporting less than a million tons of it. So the net corn import was around nine million tons. We Europeans used the hectares on which this corn was grown, and thus imported them in a virtual sense. During this time, the land was not available to feed people in other regions of the world.
How large is the surface area that the EU already uses in this way?
The EU currently occupies nearly 35 million hectares of land in the Third World like this. That amount of land is nearly equal to the total area of Germany. The level of virtual trade in land has risen especially strongly since the turn of the millennium. To stick with the corn example, around the year 2000 the EU was importing approximately two and a half times more corn than it exported, while in 2007/2008 it imported ten times as much.
How do you explain this increase?
The misguided excess production in the EU in the 1980s – with its memorable mountains of butter and lakes of milk – left politicians and the public alike with the lasting impression that increasing production in Europe is not a good idea. As a consequence, agricultural research was reduced in the public sector and discouraged in the private sector. And that had a long-term dampening effect on advances in productivity. We’re currently at only about 60 percent of the level worldwide.
What are the consequences of virtual land import?
Europeans are exacerbating the food shortages and environmental problems in the southern hemisphere. Many countries are barely able to feed their growing populations anymore from the amount of available land they have. The global need for food will double by the middle of the 21st century. If we do not manage to produce more food by increasing our productivity, hunger will trigger unimaginable catastrophes worldwide. Or we will convert more rain forests into fields, dry out moors, and use up valuable reserves of groundwater – causing irremediable damage to the climate and the environment.
What do you recommend for the EU?
The EU has to promote agricultural research more strongly again than it has in the last 20 years, for new methods and technologies will determine whether farmers can produce more food on the same amount of arable land. These advances will also benefit farming in countries outside the EU.
In which areas are new methods and technologies needed?
We can’t afford to stand still in any area, actually. We have to cultivate types of plants that can handle droughts and salty soils. We have to use water more frugally, and above all in a more targeted manner. We have to save energy, and develop machinery with ever higher performance levels. And we need more efficient means of fertilization and crop protection.
It’s important for politicians to tackle these sensitive issues. Attention should be
shifted to agricultural research, and decisions should be made based on scientific findings.
Fortunately there are signs of a shift in thinking – throughout the political spectrum. Politicians can do a lot to enable Europeans to get over their irrational aversion to technological progress.
That is a basic precondition for the efficient and sustainable use of our vanishing soil, water and energy resources – both inside and outside the EU.
