The congress will be held at the Espace Léopold complex, seat of the European Parliament in Brussels, which is vacant because the European Parliament will be in Strasbourg that week. It is unclear whether the Parliament has given the space for free, or rented it out on commercial terms. Financial support has been provided by the European Commission, one of COPA-COGECA’s biggest funders, and by EuropaBio, a pro-GMO trade association.
It should be no surprise that the delegates will be addressed by Michel Barnier, France’s farms minister, who is chief ringleader of those who would turn the clock back to the productionist, protectionist, state-planning approach of the common agricultural policy of the 60s, 70s and 80s. FAO chief Jacques Diouf has chosen to stay away and is sending his assistant Hervé Lejeune in his place. Kristen Silverberg, the US Ambassador to the EU, is still considering whether she’ll accept an invitiation to provide a perspective from America. If she does accept, the theme of her address is likely to be fairly straightforward: ethanol tastes sooo good!
On the second day the massed ranks of European farm lobbyists will be addressed by the President and Chief Executive of Dow Agrosciences, a US-based pesticides manufacturer that also boasts a GMO division. European farmers will no doubt hang on every word of the speech to be given by Keith Kenny of McDonald’s Europe. McDonald’s is, of course, renowned for the local distinctiveness and cultural value of its food, the emphasis on seasonality, small-scale production and terroir: the very characteristics that come together in the ‘European model’ of farming and food and are so often invoked by COPA-COGECA’s members as they make the case for greater protection from globalized markets.
A short coffee break will give delegates the chance to savour Mr Kenny’s remarks before an address by Walter Pötter, General Manager of the Lidl Foundation. The precise nature of the Lidl Foundation is a mystery to Berlaymole, though Lidl is of course a well known ‘hard discount’ supermarket with a reputation for union-busting and dubious employment policies as well as having been the target of farmer protests led by the Irish Farmers Association, which just happens to be a paid-up member of COPA-COGECA.
The full agenda, and details of how to apply to be a delegate (a bargain at just €400 per person!) are available here. But do hurry, the registration deadline is 12 September. Berlaymole will not be attending. If the truth be told, your correspondent would sooner gouge out his own liver and eat it, gently sauteed in butter with a few shallots and a sprinkling of fresh thyme. Bon appetit!
