European Agriculture and new global challenges

The depletion of natural resources, climate change, the general condition of instability that led to the 2008 food and energy crisis, the growth in population and consumer pressure have increased the vulnerability of health and food which affects a large proportion of the world's population. A new shortage of foof, water and energy emphasizes the precariousness of the sustainability of both population and economic growth. In this context, while we ask the agricultural sector to increase production, at the same time we ask it to reduce its environmental impact, contributing in combating climate change in its responsibility of managing more than one third of the land surface. Tackling this challenge will decide the role of policies for agriculture and rural areas. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has already made some important steps in supporting an active role of farmers in delivering public goods. Today, what was once the most important policy in the process of building the European Union should complete its path. This volume aims to propose several working hypotheses by stimulating debate about the role that CAP could play in the future. We have proposed a new platform on which to start a new phase of public interventtion in agriculture, able to generate the conditions for achieving well-being of fiture generations.