Send unused farm aid abroad, EU suggests

As global food prices soar, Europe’s development and farm aid authorities have called for better-targeted help for Third World countries to boost their self-sustainability. At a conference at the European Parliament, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said: “On the external side, we will present a proposal on how to help, not a short-term aid for the developing or the most suffering countries, those that are depending on food imports, a possibility to supply or inject money to buy seed and fertilizers.”

Development Commissioner Louis Michel talked about setting up regional country markets, pooling farm resources, jointly managing irrigation and creating collective grain storage. An EU source said as much as a billion euros in Common Agricultural Policy funds not used by member states could go towards projects in countries hit hard by food shortages.

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