Designed to feed into a debate that will be held by Heads of State at the next European Council meeting, the paper describes the reasons for rising food prices and sets out a number of EU and worldwide measures.
In terms of the EU, attention is focussed on the Health Check as well as investigating the food supply chain and strengthening research and development.
The international dimension takes account of the developed world's duty to build production capacity. In this respect, the most eye-catching proposal made by the Commissioner (and not part of the official communication) was a suggestion to use budgetary savings in the CAP to support micro-credit in developing countries.
Also last week, the European Parliament adopted a motion for resolution on the rise of food prices in the EU and the rest of the world.
The motion was generally well-rounded, with emphasis on the developing world and the challenge to tackle poverty. Encouraging for British farming were the mentions of the "immediate" need to debate GM technology and a call to investigate the imbalance between retail and farm gate prices.
Brussels staff are holding meetings with Commission officials this week to learn more about the Communication.
Making progress on GM and farm prices are key priorities for the UFU.

Less Favoured Area
consultation
The European Commission has launched a six week consultation on the future design of the EU's less favoured support schemes. The Commission and the Court of Auditors have come to the conclusion that the way in which Member States currently define LFAs is flawed and needs reviewing. Any changes to the European rules may affect future land classification. This is an important issue for Northern Ireland and the UFU will be looking closely at the detail of this and making a full submission.