New industrial uses for agricultural produce

Recommendation 324 (1962)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 19th September 1962 (8th Sitting) (see Doc. 1451, Report of the Committee on Agriculture). Text adopted by the Assembly on 19th September 1962 (8th Sitting).

The Assembly,

Considering that food production is tending in Western Europe to increase more rapidly than is consumption, so that surpluses of agricultural produce are built up and prices fall ;

Believing that one of the causes of the present unsatisfactory situation in European and world agriculture is the absence of adequate outlets for agricultural produce outside the food industry, and that new outlets must therefore be found ;

Having regard, furthermore, to the research being undertaken in the United States and Europe into new and more extensive uses for agricultural products, particularly for surpluses ;

Convinced of the need to intensify such research in close liaison with agriculture and industry in order not only to devise new methods but also to translate them into practice.

Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

1 promote research :

a by co-ordinating the work being done in existing national laboratories, institutes, faculties and technical centres ;

b by encouraging member States to assist, if need be, in setting up new technical centres for sugar-chemistry, cellulose derivatives and animal residue products ;

2 urge member States to stimulate progress in this field by setting up pilot factories ;

3 ask member States and specialised bodies such as FAO, OECD and EEC to carry out market surveys for industrial products that might be manufactured from agricultural raw materials ;

4 encourage the establishment and expansion of industries using agricultural produce, bearing in mind the need to place them on a co-operative basis.