International

Albert-Jan Maat, President of the Dutch farmers' union LTO, argues that 'bashing' the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as the source of inequality and hunger in the world makes little sense.(1) Maat praises the CAP's increasingly open character, but in my opinion things are somewhat more complex than that.

SP Member of Parliament Ewout Irrgang today urged Development Cooperation Minister Bert Koenders to provide additional funds in the face of the threat of catastrophic food shortages in the Horn of Africa. If nothing is done, and quickly, a disaster will unfold which will make the famine of the early 1990s, in which hundreds of thousands died, pale in comparison. “In April the Netherlands pledged €8 million to the UN's World Food Programme, but as things have turned out this isn't enough," says Irrgang. "I'm calling on the minister to do all in his power to persuade other EU countries to step up aid, as well as doing so himself."