AUTHORS: Faustine Bas-Defossez

As a key part of the Green Deal published in May 2020, the European Commission introduced the Farm to Fork strategy which looks at accelerating the transition towards a fair, sustainable and healthy food system. The strategy includes targets for a European food system with a reduced footprint until 2030, addressing the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. The Strategy is accompanied by a list of 27 actions to be taken until 2024.

On 10 September, in a joint session, MEPs in the Agriculture and Environmental committes agreed on their own initiative report on the strategy. This vote still has to be confirmed by the full House.

Faustine Bas-Defossez, IEEP External Impact Director reacted:

“Science is clear about the urgent need to transform our food system and make it sustainable, to stay within Planetary Boundaries and avoid reaching tipping points. The vote of the Environment and Agriculture Committees today sets key building block towards this necessary transformation, but it also goes a step further by calling for the development of national food strategic plans, one of the key recommendations made by IEEP and Ecologic Institute in the framework of the Think2030 platform.

This request is essential to break existing siloes, tackle the challenges of food environment and poverty and incoherent policies at national, regional, local level.

Today’s vote brings some hope after the weaknesses of the deal with regards to CAP a few months ago. However the road ahead for a fair and sustainable food system remains long and challenging.”

About Think2030

Launched by IEEP and its partners in 2018, Think2030 is an evidence-based, non-partisan platform of leading policy experts from European think tanks, civil society, the private sector and local authorities. By focusing on producing relevant, timely and concrete policy recommendations, Think2030’s key objective is to identify science-policy solutions for a more sustainable Europe.

Find out more about Think2030 and how to get involved here.

Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash