In support of an agriculture which can feed the world

Edgard Pisani, former minister for Agriculture who is still consulted by governments and international institutions because of his talent and freedom of thought, has been warning public authorities and the public at large since 1996 of an impending worldwide food crisis. Market regulation alone has proved incapable of protecting goods which are crucial for the future of mankind, such as water, land which can be farmed and forests. Edgard Pisani puts forward a number of solutions : the creation of large, homogenous regions within which free exchange of food products could take place (the exchanges between regions would be regulated by the WTO (World Trade Organisation)) ; the creation of an environmental and food security council with powers comparable to those of a military security council ; and the reconstruction of rural agriculture in Africa on the basis of food-producing parks in order to create a process of self-sufficiency, and as a source of employment, in response to the demographic explosion.