EU agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler continues to toe the line that the EU is keen to promote both an efficient and sustainable agriculture policy. Despite the fact these mutually exclusive aims cut no ice, least of all in the US, the familiar lines are trotted out steadily on both sides of the Atlantic. Speaking at the eighth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development in New York between the bank holidays, Fischler said: "Our ambitious objectives will be met only if we manage to set favourable terms for improving agricultural productivity. "This is also a precondition of responsible stewardship of the natural resources on which agriculture is based." The OECD, however, has blasted both the EU and the US for distorting global markets with their subsidies to producers, depressing both profitability and sustainability elsewhere in the world. {{PROVISIONS }}