If subsidies for farmers were lowered, would emissions increase due to an increase in food transportation? Or would there be a net global reduction since imported food from developing countries is less intensively farmed?

Intensive farming has given us cheap food, however the reliance upon oil for farming machinery and tractors has led to vulnerability to fluctuations in oil prices – as demonstrated in the food crisis last year. In the longer term, petroleum-based agriculture is obviously not sustainable.

Reducing barriers to trade in agriculture may provide the potential for developing country farmers to sell crops to the European market, which use less mechanised methods, while also contributing to their development. It must be remembered that many developing countries rely upon primary agricultural produce as their main export. Increased trade and development could increase developing countries adaptability to climate change. Meanwhile, growing trees on newly inactive farmland could act as a carbon sink.

On the other hand, lowering trade barriers in agriculture could merely export environmental damage, as agro-firms shift to developing countries to exploit cheap labour and lower environmental standards. Deforestation could increase as tropical forest is cut down to grow cash crops for export. Environmental standards must be enforced globally to prevent this ‘leakage’ effect. Meanwhile, lowering barriers to trade may vastly increase airborne emissions due to flights of perishable foods. Moreover, lower food prices in the EU could lead further proliferation of the throw-away culture in which a third of household food is wasted.

Detailed Life-Cycle Analysis of food products is therefore necessary to assess the percentage of embedded emissions that come from the transportation and the production of food products. Does shipping out-of-season produce from abroad emit less CO2 than heating greenhouses in a cold climate? The right incentives must be created. We need a complete and comprehensive scientific overview of the Common Agricultural Policy in terms of carbon emissions. Climate change is the most urgent and important issue of our time, and we need an agricultural policy that reflects this.