Hello everyone,

Here some nice propaganda from WUR university ..

Best, Nina

-------- Doorgestuurd bericht -------- Onderwerp: POLITICO Pro Morning Agri and Food: Rural revival — Plant-breeding patents — Fair trade food Datum: Tue, 7 Sep 2021 05:00:17 +0000 Van: Morning Agri and Food Europe morningagrifood@politico.eu Antwoord-naar: Morning Agri and Food Europe morningagrifood@politico.eu Aan: POLITICO Europe Subscribers nina@corporateeurope.org

POLITICO Pro Morning Agri and Food: Rural revival — Plant-breeding patents — Fair trade food

The source for European policy news from farm to market and everything in between.

POLITICO Pro Morning Agriculture and Food *View in your browser or listen to audio https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=8854e2d3ff&e=75e4c44bd8*

*By GABRIELA GALINDO*

*with Eddy Wax and Louise Guillot*

SNEAK PEEK

—*EU farm ministers will today put their heads together* to try to solve the deep divisions between rural and urban areas.

— *A leading agricultural research university has freed up the IP licenses for five novel plant-breeding techniques, *saying they offer promising solutions to fight world hunger.

—*EU politicians sent clear signals to the bloc’s trade partners of a looming shake-up *of rules and conditions that apply to agri-food goods.

*Good morning and welcome to Morning Agri*. Write to us at: ewax@politico.eu mailto:ewax@politico.eu, ggalindo@politico.eu mailto:galindo@politico.eu or zwanat@politico.eu mailto:zwanat@politico.eu | *We’re tweeting away*https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=5933dd99ba&e=75e4c44bd8@eddywax https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=f1011b338d&e=75e4c44bd8, @gabgr https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=36e6911de4&e=75e4c44bd8 and @zosiawanat https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=574da61f3e&e=75e4c44bd8.

DRIVING THE DAY

*FARM MINISTERS AIM TO BRIDGE EUROPE’S URBAN-RURAL DIVIDE: *EU agriculture ministers are still in Slovenia for their informal meeting, today to discuss what can be done to improve disparities between cities and Europe’s rapidly emptying rural areas. EU policymakers are desperate to find a way to reinject life and economic vibrancy into rural areas, where people often feel left behind and neglected by government policies on transport and connectivity compared to those supposedly living the high life in the big cities.

*Townies vs farmers: *But they also want to address farmers’ complaints that they’re facing ever more hostility when people do escape urban jungles for the simple life and are confronted by the realities of agricultural production.

*Quick reminder: *All this is happening against the backdrop of the EU’s new blueprint for the future of rural areas, published in June https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=c5ccb9b0c8&e=75e4c44bd8.

*Pooling ideas: *That’s why ahead of today’s informal discussion in Brdo, outside the city of Kranj, the Slovenian EU Council presidency has asked member countries to provide examples of what they’re doing to try to soothe such social conflicts. This may include rural dwellers who are upset about pesticides sprayed near their homes, loud noises from industrial machinery, or pungent livestock smells.

*The divide is real: *“There is a rift that exists today that we can see between urban people and rural people,” French Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie told Eddy in Slovenia on Monday.

Denormandie said part of the issue is what he called “neo-rural people” — those who move from big cities to the countryside and have different expectations of what life there should be like — and said people relocating outside of dense urban areas has only accelerated during the pandemic.

*Spain also wants rural renewal: *Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas is today set to argue that it’s high time the EU makes rural areas a strategic priority if it wants to solve long-standing challenges like population decline, poor infrastructure and the digital divide.

“The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is not enough, by itself, to bring solutions to the needs and developmental aspirations of rural areas,” Planas said in a statement https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=5fa4ef58fa&e=75e4c44bd8 before today’s talks, echoing the findings of a Commission report presented last week to the European Parliament’s agriculture committee.

*Gender gap:* Under Spain’s national CAP strategic plan, Planas said he wants to address the issue of aging populations in rural areas, as well as what he called the “masculinization” of the countryside: “Without women, there is no future in rural areas,” he said.

*Leave our /coqs/ alone: *Denormandie also told Morning Agri: “If tomorrow our urban areas become areas where there should no longer be cocks, that’s going to pose a major problem.” He was referring to a famous case of a cockerel named Maurice who prompted — and eventually won — alawsuit https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=5ad7c97cc1&e=75e4c44bd8 in the southwest of France because his cock-a-doodle-doo-ing was too loud for his neighbors to handle.

France’s youthful farm chief — a trenchant defender of Maurice — said the affair was “completely /ubuesque/.”

*SPEAKING OF CAP PLANS …* EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said upcoming negotiations with EU countries over how they implement the new Common Agricultural Policy will be just as tough https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=427567f7e0&e=75e4c44bd8 as the at times acrimonious https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=417b8e8630&e=75e4c44bd8 talks to reach an overall political deal earlier this year. More on POLITICO Pro. https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=c5248cb440&e=75e4c44bd8

PLANT-BREEDING TECHNIQUES

*FIVE CRISPR-CAS PATENTS UP FOR GRABS: *The Dutch University of Wageningen (WUR) announced https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=ae85d148ed&e=75e4c44bd8 Monday that it will free up the intellectual property licenses of five of its patents involving CRISPR-Cas — a novel plant breeding technique — which it said could help fight against hunger. The IP must be used for nonprofit purposes only, the university said.

“We hope this contributes to healthier, more sustainable, equitable, affordable and resilient food production for all,” Wageningen University President Louise O. Fresco said in a statement.

*Food of the future? *Fresco said technologies like CRISPR offer promising solutions to accelerate efforts to make food systems more sustainable at a time when millions also face malnutrition.

Fellow WUR Professor John van der Oost added that the potential of CRISPR to address these challenges “cannot be overstated.”

*New tech in the spotlight:* Proponents of such technologies are pushing for lawmakers to ease regulations of so-called new breeding techniques, or NBTs, like CRISPR-Cas, with EU countries like Germany https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=75c49eeedd&e=75e4c44bd8, as well as big farming and biotechnology groups, arguing such methods offer stability to farmers battling increasingly intense and common extreme weather events. The EU Commission has also said https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=9a2c885b18&e=75e4c44bd8 it will create a new regulatory framework for NBTs that will differ from the strict labeling and transparency rules applied to conventional genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

*Watch this space:* Fresco said NBTs will figure prominently during the U.N. Food Systems Summit later this month.

*But of course, not everyone agrees this is the right way* to solve world food problems: Some NGOs and small-scale farmers fear unknown impacts from such new techniques and also argue they could give Big Food companies an even bigger advantage on the market.

***Never miss a thing with the Pro app.* Easily access and search your full range of Pro content and related policy insights. Download or update the iOS App https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=a865f74bd3&e=75e4c44bd8 and the Android App https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=3cd6e8a4b3&e=75e4c44bd8.****

TRADE

*EU POLITICIANS EYE SHAKE-UP OF AGRI-FOOD TRADE RULES:* EU politicians sent clear signals Monday to the bloc’s trade partners of a looming shake-up of rules and conditions that apply to agri-food goods, setting the stage for potential pushback from allies who already argue the bloc does too much to try to impose rules on the rest of the world.

*EU study coming:* First, EU farm chief Wojciechowski announced https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=7dbf9a9042&e=75e4c44bd8 while mingling with national agriculture ministers in Slovenia that a study looking into the “feasibility” of extending the EU’s production rules to imported agricultural and agri-food products would be published by next June. This could include everything from animal welfare and health standards to labor rules.

Wojciechowski said the study would explore potential avenues to make sure EU rules are applied more consistently and “in conformity with WTO rules.”

*French ambitions:* Then France’s Denormandie told Morning Agri that making sure food imported into the EU meets the bloc’s own internal standards would be his “first, second and third priority” when Paris takes over the EU Council presidency next year.

“I will have one priority subject during the French presidency. In fact, I will have three: the first one is reciprocity in trade standards, so-called mirror clauses, the second is reciprocity in trade standards, mirror clauses, and the third is reciprocity in trade standards, the mirror clauses,” he said, adding: “I am convinced that we will end up with more and more member states following the French position on this.” Read more on Denormandie’s plans here https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=390df63aa8&e=75e4c44bd8.

*COMMISSION OUTLINES PLANS FOR DEFORESTATION LAW:* The European Commission is finalizing its draft of new legislation to prevent products that contribute to deforestation and forest degradation from entering the EU market, according to Astrid Schomaker, director for global sustainable development at the Commission’s environment department. Speaking during an event at the World Conservation Congress in France on Sunday, she said https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=60503cea96&e=75e4c44bd8 the Commission wants to “cover the commodities responsible for the bulk of the damage done to forest, that includes to our analysis: cattle, timber, palm oil, soy, coffee and cocoa.”

*Scope:* She added that Brussels “want[s] to be systematic and that means covering human rights and derived products” — think leather, for instance. Schomaker also said the legislation will not only address illegal deforestation but also the degradation of biodiversity-rich ecosystems (like savannahs and wetlands), which was an idea pushed by the European Parliament last year.

*Flexibility:* Schomaker said that “in trading, we need flexibility” and therefore the legislation will “need to be able to adapt to changing circumstances.” But she added that “no commodity will be subject to discrimination and the proposal will apply to commodities and end products inside and outside the EU.”

*‘Elephant in the room’:* Nico Muzi, Europe director of the NGO Mighty Earth, who was also on the panel at the event, welcomed the Commission’s willingness to account for human rights violations associated with deforestation, calling it a “bold decision.”

But he also told POLITICO: “DG Environment keeps ignoring the elephant in the room: the destruction of natural ecosystems such as savannas and wetlands” — an idea that was strongly pushed by the European Parliament in a report https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=7f2f95db04&e=75e4c44bd8 last year. “This is potentially the biggest loophole in the upcoming EU law because soy is the commodity imported into the EU that caused the most deforestation between 2005 and 2017, mainly in Brazil ‘s Cerrado savannahs,” he said.

*More trade wars?* And the EU’s effort to strip environmental and labor abuses from its agricultural supply chains is facing more trouble, with a group of chocolate-producing countries from South America the latest to push back against it, according to the Hill https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=d1b690e7ca&e=75e4c44bd8.

FAST FOOD

*France’s sustainable food voucher won’t come before next year:* A voucher meant to encourage consumers to buy more sustainable foods will not be launched before 2022, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=b8bd1b715a&e=75e4c44bd8 Monday.

*Brazil halts beef exports to China after mad cow disease reports: *The Brazilian government has suspended exports of beef to China, one of its top buyers, following two confirmed cases of mad cow disease at separate processing plants, Reuters https://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=83c2feee61&e=75e4c44bd8 reports.

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