The Commission, which drafts EU laws, says farmers should have to work for part of their subsidies by helping wildlife - diversifying crops, leaving grassland unploughed and creating special ecological areas.

BBC: Will MEPs scupper greening of EU agriculture?

For the first time since the 1960s the yields of the world's most important crops, wheat and rice, are rising more slowly than the global population (see special report).

ECONOMIST: The future of food