The European Union has recognised the importance of agriculture from the beginning. Since the Rome Treaty in 1957, with its Common Agricultural Policy, one of the EU’s primary functions has been to help Europe feed itself.
Yet its ability to do so is threatened. Only about 150 crops, and a small number of varieties of each, are grown on a large scale worldwide. This is staggering given that there are 7,000 crop species in existence, 80,000 edible plant species, and…