15 Amendments of Alyn SMITH related to 2011/2095(INI)
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Recalls that the agricultural sector can contribute to further mitigating climate change, and the CAP post 2013 is expected to enhance this contribution; notes, however, that, in the longer run, the emission reduction potential of agriculture is rather limited compared to other sectors that significant greenhouse gas emission reductions can be achieved in the agricultural sector which can lead to a win-win-win situation by increasing farmers´ long term economic and agronomic viability, via increased climate resilience and reduced eutrophication, and lower external costs of pollution for society as a whole;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Considers that long term competitiveness can only be achieved by having healthy, biologically diverse agro- ecosystems that are climate resilient and by taking due care of limited and finite natural resources, such as soil, water and land;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that emission mitigation efforts are expected to increase demand for bio- energy and stresses therefore that agriculture is not only part of the problem but a solution to it, being a producer of biomass and biofuelcan also offer solutions; notes that special care must be taken regarding turning over land used for food production to growing biofuel crops, in order to avoid clearance of forests and other ecosystems and food price rises;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Recalls that the action on climate change and the need to ensureclimate change, biodiversity and global food security are dualtriple challenges which need to be pursued together;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that careful, internationally concerted approach is needed since EU agriculture is pronthere is currently no EU carbon price for the agricultural sector and therefore tohe carbon leakage, in particular through the asymmetric phase- in of a carbon pricempacts for the EU agriculture sector are very limited;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Recalls that improved agricultural and forestry practices should increase the capacity of the sector to preserve and sequester carbon in soils and forests; notes that both adaptation to and mitigation of climate change can be achieved by increasing the carbon content of the soil, re-linking animal and arable production, decreasing dependency on oil-based fertiliser and pesticides, while also closing nutrient cycles and making nutrient cycles efficient and non-polluting while ensuring optimal crop growth;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Stresses that crop rotation, especially combined with conservation tillage, leads to a higher soil-carbon content and therefore contributes to combating climate change;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses that in order to ensure the cohesion between the common policies, any new regulation or standard imposed climate mainstreaming of the future Common aAgricultural producers by any policy, e.g. animal welfare, should not compromise the low carbon economy targetPolicies is essential to ensure coherence between our different EU 2020 objectives;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Stresses that the food chain should be shortened and the consumption of locally produced food should be encouraged, including the support for local markets, in order to reduce the transport related emissions of agricultural production; notes that transport-related emissions of agricultural products only represent a relatively small part of the total carbon footprint of these products and therefore agricultural production and product losses also need to be addressed;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes that there is a need for better management of bio-waste and of agriculture and forestry by- products; notes in this respect the use of animal waste and plant based by-products and processing waste e.g. in biofermenters to produce on- farm energy, while at the same time also reducing farmers' production costs;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Supports the financing by EU funds, including the Rural Development Fund, of only energy efficient projects for agricultural facilities, especially of those applying renewable energy sources which can reduce carbon emissions to a level as far as possible closer to zeroclose to zero as possible;
Amendment 64 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Stresses that more research funding is necessary to develop and mainstream less energy intensive agricultural methods.nd less polluting agricultural methods, and furthermore notes that low pollution and energy efficient alternatives already exist;
Amendment 66 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Believes that better livestock feed management, including protein crops in arable rotations and increasing the diversity of protein crops in permanent pasture mixes, in order to grow more animal feed on-farm, would reduce dependence on animal feed imports with a high carbon cost; this would also reduce costs of animal feed for farmers, and invest into better soil management, through increasing soil water retention, and also reducing susceptibility to pests;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11 b (new)
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11b. Stresses the need to improve the energy self-sufficiency of farms, through incentives for on-farm renewable energy, such as wind turbines, solar panels and bio fermentation technology, to reduce production costs and increase their economic viability by providing an alternative income stream for farmers;
Amendment 68 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11 c (new)
Paragraph 11 c (new)
11c. Notes the FAO study "Low Greenhouse Gas Agriculture" from 2009, and its finding that organic agriculture reduced energy requirements for production systems by 25 to 50 percent compared to conventional chemical-based agriculture; stresses that integration of organic techniques into farming have a major role to play in tackling carbon emissions while boosting farm productivity, such as sequestering carbon in the soil, thus increasing soil organic matter content and boosting plant growth fertility, plus increasing retention of water and reducing the need to irrigate.