German Minister Calls for Reversal of EU Agricultural Policy

German Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer has called for a drastic rise in European agricultural production, in a reverse of the bloc's previous agricultural policy, to counter rising world food prices and shortages.

"We need a farming renaissance, and an increase in agricultural production in Germany, in the whole of the European Union and, more especially, in the developing countries," Seehofer said in an interview to be published on Sunday, April 20.

Speaking to the mass-circulation Bild newspaper, Seehofer noted that that the EU had induced farmers to stop using 3.8 million hectares (9.4 million acres) of arable land in recent years to counter surpluses in dairy, produce, wine and meat.

This land should be brought into production once more, he said.