Europe as a collective is largely self sufficient in many areas, if we look at the countries individually its a different story however.
The EU is a major importer of feed protein, and fertilizer as well as meats and some luxury crops which cannot be grown in the EU for various reasons. (I'm talking specialist fruits and veg etc)
The UK has imported about 46% of all its food stuffs for well a very long time its relatively stable, the sad thing about UK farming was the EU Common Agricultural policy.
In Principle the policy is sound and has some very good merits however when you put it into practice it can and does fall apart.
You have UK farmers being paid for Pigs, Sheep and cows they dont have yet a country like the UK in the common ag policy having farmers being told you cant produce this this year then having to import the pork lamb and beef from other countries just makes a mockery of the policy.
Of the 3 farms that were near me where I lived in the UK all of them at one time or another were paid not to produce, this produce could have stayed in the domestic market or better still exported outside the EU (which due to market caps would not be allowed under the common ag policy)
When you look at organic farming the sustainability level for a population is just not there, right now I am living in the farmlands of Manitoba the prairie provinces, Manitoba is known for its high quality corn.
The organic farmers doesn't get the same yield as non organic farmers, and due to the time required in the fields to prepare them, cultivate and keep watch over them and yet still only bring home about half the yield of a non organic farmer the price of their commodity is much higher hence the price at the store is higher.
Can a country live off organic farming? if it had a decent sized land mass capable of farming with a relatively small population then yes they could New Zealand is a good example of that.
Could the UK Germany or France do the same? unfortunately not out population size is too big and the farm lands are too small or given over to development.
Can the common ag policy of the EU work, In my view yes it can with a couple of changes.
The common ag policy main goal is stability for farmers and markets and it does do a fairly ok job right now, the problem is the subsidy farmers get for not producing sometimes isn't enough to keep a large property going forcing farmers to sell off land or go bankrupt.
The other side is when you have a central planning institute working out the quotas for the next year if they screw that up (and they have many times) then the country affected is forced to import products that could have been grown or reared in the country.
Would Organic farming work en mass to feed 500+ million? unlikely given the susceptibility to the crops, pests and viruses, lower yields and higher production cost.
There are however community projects that could be workable and some are being trialed in Canada and the Netherlands these are community gardens and vertical farming.
if you can produce that type of result locally and be able to feed the local population with the produce you make in these vertical farms then I do actually see it would be a winner.
But growing on mass for export this way would not be achievable it would only be for locally domestic consumption.
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