Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2014-03-10-Speech-1-194-000"
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"en.20140310.18.1-194-000"2
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"Mr[nbsp ]President, I am pleased to be able to present this report today, and I sincerely hope it receives wide support when it comes to the vote. Horticulture is a hugely important subject for Europe. I believe that horticulture can make a great contribution both to the European economy and to feeding the world at a time when we are all very concerned about food security. The report stresses the importance of promoting the horticulture sector and, particularly, of enabling it to compete better in the global marketplace through innovation, research and development, energy efficiency and adaptation to climate change, all of which the report covers.
Food security is a major issue for all of us. Within 20 years we will need approximately 40[nbsp ]% more food than we currently produce. At the moment horticulture produces 18[nbsp ]% of Europe’s agricultural output using only 3[nbsp ]% of the land, so there is great scope for pushing that forward. We must also be able to export, and my report emphasises the need to make it easier for our producers to gain access to third-country markets. The export value of our ornamentals is approximately EUR[nbsp ]1.9[nbsp ]billion a year.
There are many other things which I would like to bring to your attention, but I will not have time to cover all of them. The report very much supports producer organisations (POs), and it calls on the Commission, in its review of the fruit and veg regime which is just coming out, to give us some clear and practical rules on the working methods of POs and to adjust the scheme to fit the market conditions in the various Member States. We have seen, particularly in the UK, examples of POs being de-recognised simply because they do not seem to fit the way that the Commission envisages them working. The rules need to be much more helpful to growers and their organisations.
Another aspect is integrated pest management (IPM), which is an area with much scope for future development. If we are going to compete in the global marketplace we must embrace new methods and new techniques. We cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand and say that we want to revert to completely organic, green, never-touch-anything methods. Developments like IPM give us the opportunity to improve the way we do things, but we cannot for the moment do without plant protection products, various sprays and indeed neonicotinoids. We must make sure that any decisions we take are based on scientific evidence and are not only hazard-based. I would like to pay tribute to organisations such as Harper Adams University, in my own region of the West Midlands, which are very active in this area.
Lastly, and particularly in the light of youth unemployment levels across Europe, we have a great opportunity to offer worthwhile careers in horticulture. We need botanists, agricultural engineers and plant scientists: all these fields offer fulfilling, worthwhile careers that we must encourage our young people to take up."@en1
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