As bad ideas go, this one is a corker. Michel Barnier, French agriculture minister, wants to consolidate the European Union’s self-sufficiency in food and encourage regional groups of developing countries to do the same. It is entirely the wrong lesson to draw from the global food crisis.

The claim of Nicolas Sarkozy’s government to be in favour of agricultural reform is almost completely specious. Paris says it wants to reduce agricultural subsidies, at least those paid at an EU-wide level. This, no doubt, is connected with the fact that the accession of poorer, more agrarian countries to the EU is jostling French farmers as they wallow in their privileged position sucking at the Brussels teat.