From the now stalled Farm to Fork Strategy to local food policies, key European initiatives for healthy and resilient food systems
By Giorgio Kaldor, Renewable Matter / Renewable Matter
According to the World Bank, the global food system is currently worth about $10 trillion, about 10 percent of the planet’s economy. A significant figure that is outweighed, however, by the “hidden” costs of all those activities that make it possible to produce, process, distribute, consume and dispose of our food. In fact, the food system, or food system, is responsible for about one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, while agriculture alone remains first in the world in land and freshwater use, accounting for about 70 percent of withdrawals.
A footprint that not only could be lighter-one-third of food produced globally is lost or wasted-but that precisely underlies $12 trillion annually in negative environmental, health and poverty externalities. Amounts that are certainly difficult to calculate, which not only do not include an additional half a trillion dollars in public financial supports to agricultural producers, but to date are not reflected in current food market prices.
In this scenario, with a “domestic” market of more than 450 million consumers, how does the European Union fit in? From the Farm to Fork Strategy to local food policies, here are key European initiatives for sustainable, equitable, healthy and resilient food systems.
Food policies in Europe: why are they needed?
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report, Policies for the Future of Farming and Food in the European Union, released in October 2023, the European Union remains the world’s largest exporter of agri-food products and one of the largest importers. Although it contributes only 1.7 percent to the Union’s gross domestic product, agriculture in fact occupies 39 percent of its territory. In recent years, however, the EU agribusiness sector has had to deal with the consequences of climate change and the two systemic shocks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Nonetheless, by demonstrating the resilience of its food systems, the EU has been able to “keep productivity growing, particularly in post-2004 member states, reduce greenhouse gas emission intensity, and promote cross-country collaboration on innovation.”
However, there is no shortage of caveats in the analysis. The report’s authors point out that agricultural productivity has been increasing at a slower rate than in other OECD countries. The sector’s environmental sustainability performance has also not improved in line with expectations. Between 2014 and 2022, the period analyzed by experts, this “stalled progress” would be due not so much to insufficient ambition or lack of resources, but rather to the design and implementation of public policies. Read: to do better, action must be taken on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which accounts for about one-third of the EU budget, alongside additional measures. An awareness that the Ursula von der Leyen-led European Commission was very clear about as early as 2020, when the European Green Deal was presented.
From farm to table: the Farm to Fork Strategy
“The two transitions, climate and digital, will bring changes for everyone, but there is no doubt: agriculture will remain an important part of our culture and our future. We need a sustainable farm-to-table strategy. From access to capital for young farmers to the fact that food imported from third countries must meet EU environmental standards.” With these words Ursula von der Leyen in November 2019 presented the committee and program of the new mandate during a plenary session in the European Parliament.
The promise of a new legislative framework, to be coordinated with the future CAP review for 2023-2027, was fulfilled on May 20, 2020. On that day, the EU executive presented its Biodiversity Strategy and Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy. Two intrinsically linked pillars of the European Green Deal, created to reform the food strategy along three lines: reducingenvironmental footprint, ensuring food security in the face of climate change, and promoting asustainable agribusiness industry.
A full two years before the Montreal COP15 on Biodiversity, in intentions the F2F strategy thus aimed to reduce pesticide use and related risks by 50 percent and halve nutrient loss, ensuring soil fertility and thus avoiding fertilizer use by at least 20 percent. Initial targets included a 50 percent drop in sales of antimicrobials used for farm and aquaculture animals. Finally, the hopes were to achieve the goal of allocating 25 percent of farmland to organic farming and to facilitate, with a view to transparency and traceability, better labeling of food products considered healthier and more sustainable.
Four years later, however, on the doorstep of the new European elections in June 2024, the Farm to Fork Strategy has stalled and is now even at risk. One image is enough to summarize the reasons for this stop: the more than 1,000 tractors present at Place de Luxembourg, in front of the European Parliament building, a symbol of the waves of protests raised by farmers across Europe last January. In addition to the initial spark, namely German companies’ demand to see the cost of agricultural diesel fuel lowered, protesters accused the Farm to Fork Strategy measures of being economically unsustainable and with rushed bureaucratic timelines. Same fate for the Nature Restoration Law, the foundational piece of the Biodiversity Strategy.
National food policies, best practices and critical issues
Despite the absence of a common consensus at the European level, there is no shortage of recent examples of national food policies, adopted by individual member states. In February 2016, France introduced legislation against food waste, prohibiting supermarkets from disposing of unsold food and forcing them to donate it. A legislative trend that on the waste side has been confirmed by the transposition of Directive 2018/851. As of January 1, 2024, in line with the rest of Europe, France has thus implemented theobligation to separate organic waste, a fraction that makes up roughly one-third of the total municipal solid waste in the country. Food scraps, expired food, mowing and small household prunings will be used for biogas or compost production to avoid the use of chemical fertilizers. Previously, only those who produced more than five tons of organic waste per year were required to separate it.
Denmark, on the other hand, has for years had a food policy devoted entirely to the promotion of organic products. In 2015, through a revision of Denmark’s Organic Action Plan (2011-2020), the country achieved its original goal of doubling the organic agricultural area compared to 2007. In addition, the Plan leveraged municipal procurement, introducing a national target of 60 percent organic products in all canteens (a similar initiative is in place in Italy through the introduction of minimum environmental criteria, CAM). Not surprisingly, according to a market survey sponsored by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), organic’s share of the retail market in 2020 was 13 percent, the highest on a global scale, followed in Europe by Austria (11.3 percent) and Switzerland (9.3 percent). Renub Research’s report, Denmark Organic Food Market, Size, Forecast 2023-2028, Industry Trends, Growth, Impact of Inflation, Opportunity Company Analysis, also suggests that the Danish organic market will reach 7.08 billion by 2028.
The last example, significant on the health side, concerns the adoption in 2020 in Germany of the Nutri-Score food labeling system. The Nutri-Score, first introduced in France in 2017, is a color-coded label that provides a quick overview of the nutritional quality of food products. A kind of “traffic light” that helps consumers make more informed choices by encouraging producers to reformulate their products so that they are healthier. Farm to Fork itself included the introduction of the Nutri-Score as a common standard in the 27 member countries. However, the proposal in 2022 has been suspended.
In Italy, in defense of the mythological Mediterranean diet, resistance has come from Confagricoltura and Coldiretti. In particular, manufacturers of high-fat and high-sugar foods felt unfairly penalized by the algorithm on which the Nutri-Score is based, believing that this system had negative effects on their business. After all, that the Nutri-Score system is controversial also emerges from the Italian Antitrust, which has been invoked by Confagricoltura itself. Following the authority’s decision, companies in Italy now using the NutriScore must mandatorily specify that it is not universally recognized by the scientific community, does not take into account an individual’s nutritional needs and profile, and is related to 100 grams of product and not to a consumption portion.
Urban food policies are increasingly important
It is Peter Defranceschi, Head Global of ICLEI CityFood, who explains why it is crucial to look at urban food systems and food policies at the municipal level. ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is a global network working with more than 2,500 local and regional governments committed to driving local action toward a social-ecological transition. For food systems in particular, ICLEI seeks to promote circular supply chains and low-carbon value chains.
“In Europe, about 70 percent of the food produced by farmers is consumed in cities, while more than two-thirds of food waste always occurs in urban areas,” says Defranceschi. “City Food is our global food program, one of the most relevant urban food policies . We work on three areas, all pertaining to health: healthy people, healthy landscape and healthy climate. Transversely this means dealing with fostering changes in citizens’ behaviors and habits.” For example, by taking action on public procurement. “SchoolFood4Change is our flagship project and has 43 partners in 12 member states. The idea behind it is very concrete. Through procurement, from kindergartens to high schools, local authorities are committed to including certain criteria. A certain percentage of food must come from small-scale farmers to encourage short food chains, and a certain percentage must be products generated by organic farming. Healthy food that fosters a connection to biodiversity. By doing so, all the SDGs, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, can be served in one dish.”
