Innovation and technology have enabled the United States to increase its production of food and fiber by 400% in the past 90 years while using 10% less land, says U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. Speaking exclusively to independent EU affairs newspaper New Europe, he expresses fears that the EU Farm to Fork agenda will turn back the clock on agricultural advances, threatening the livelihoods of farmers and leading to less productivity and more food insecurity around the world.
Rolling out the EU’s Farm to Farm would be “like stopping all transatlantic flights and going back to sentimental ocean liners of the past – it just doesn’t make sense,” says Perdue.
He believes that reducing farmers’ access to crop protection tools is reckless and will lead to more waste, creating issues up and down the supply chain.
“This would be like if we took a serious disease, like smallpox, and stopped vaccinating people even though we know that would prevent people from getting smallpox. That’s what the EU is trying to do with agriculture.”