The uncertain implications of the food crises for EU and US agricultural policies: evidence from the post-2013 CAP and 2012 US Farm Bill debates

In the view of an increasing number of policy-makers, experts and activists around the world, how to produce enough nutritious food to feed a growing world population in the era of climate change is the main challenge for our times. Agriculture is at crossroads, and long-established food and farm policies have been put into question as result of food shortages, rising prices, and evidence on environmental consequences of agricultural intensification. The paper explores to what extent the food crisis entered the policy debate in EU and US. More specifically it compares the recent EU and US debates on agricultural policies, with a focus on the post-2013 CAP debate and the discussion on the 2012 US Farm Bill. The paper assesses the competing arguments advanced in the policy formulation stage by a wide array of stakeholders and experts to discuss the implications of the food crisis for EU and US agricultural systems and policies. The research is based on extensive content analysis of consultation processes and hearings held by the European Commission and the US Congress as well as a series of semi-structured interviews with key actors in Brussels and Washington D.C.