Director-General's address to the European Parliament

6 November 2008, Rome - Some media reports on the Director-General's address to the European Parliament in Brussels on 4 November 2008 have quoted selectively from the statement in a way that could be misleading.

The correct text of the section of the speech that was cited reads as follows:

"We need the farmers of both developed and developing countries at the time when we have to double world food production to feed 923 million hungry people and a population to reach 9 billion persons by 2050. These farmers should receive an income equivalent to what workers in industry and services earn in their different countries. If not they will leave the rural land to go to cities.

To that effect we should however have the imagination and intelligence to develop and implement mechanisms that do not distort the market and penalize farmers in developing countries as is the case for the present common agricultural policy, farm bills and other similar policies of developed countries.

We need to mobilize 30 billion US$ per year for investment in inputs and rural infrastructure in least developed countries.This should be possible as OECD countries spent 372 billion US$ in support to their farmers in 2006 and 1200 billion were spent in weapons worldwide the same year".