ROADMAP

Title of the initiative

Farm to Fork Strategy

Lead DG – responsible unit

DG SANTE/Unit ‘Food information and composition, food waste’

Likely Type of initiative

Communication from the Commission

Indicative Planning

Q1 2020

Additional Information

DG SANTE web page on Farm to Fork

A. Context, Problem definition and Subsidiarity Check

Context

The Political guidelines of President von der Leyen highlight the need to provide Europeans with nutritious, affordable and safe food and to support our farmers and fishers with a new Farm to Fork Strategy on sustainable food along the whole value chain. Such a strategy should cover every step in the food supply chain from production to consumption and feed into the European Commission’s circular economy objectives.

The European Green Deal cannot be achieved without addressing the issue of food sustainability. European citizens’ health, the planet’s environmental health and the economic and social health of coastal and rural areas go hand in hand.

The European Commission announced, as part of its Green Deal Communication adopted on 11 December 2019, that the Farm to Fork Strategy, to be presented in spring 2020, will illustrate the objectives and actions necessary to secure a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system. The strategy will combine both regulatory and non-regulatory initiatives to reach its objectives. The Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy will be key tools to support the strategy.

The strands of the Green Deal are strongly interlinked and mutually reinforcing. In particular, the Farm to Fork Strategy has strong connections with and directly contributes to the new Circular Economy Action Plan, the 2030 EU Biodiversity Strategy, the Forestry Strategy, the EU Climate ambition and the Zero Pollution Strategy.

The EU has committed to the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and to being a frontrunner in its implementation. Food related targets run throughout the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Farm to Fork Strategy will play a pivotal role in their implementation.

Problem the initiative aims to tackle

Although the transition into more sustainable food systems, including through the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy, is ongoing, it needs to accelerate, given the multiple challenges food systems in the EU and globally are confronted with.

The recent report on Climate change and Land of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stresses that it will be impossible to keep global temperatures at safe levels unless there is a transformation in the way the world produces food and manages land. The report estimates that 25 – 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the food system. Food systems greatly contribute to pollution of air, soil and water and to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as to biodiversity loss. At the same time, extreme weather events due to climate change are severely affecting agricultural and seafood production with dire consequences for the livelihood of farmers and fishers and coastal and rural communities.

In the European Union, about 20% of the food produced is currently wasted, whilst 36 million citizens cannot afford a quality meal every second day. This is set against a backdrop of rising obesity, contributing to a high prevalence of diet-related diseases and related health care costs. The food environment does not always allow the healthy option to be the easiest option.

Antimicrobial resistance is also a serious health threat linked to the excessive and inappropriate use of antimicrobials (e.g. antibiotics), including in farmed animals, as well as to the discharge of antimicrobials in the environment.

Under the future Common Agricultural Policy for 2021-2027, incentives have been proposed for farmers to actively contribute to climate objectives, protect the environment and biodiversity. The Farm to Fork Strategy will complement and support these efforts to move towards more sustainable food systems in line with the Green Deal and contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Basis for EU intervention (legal basis and subsidiarity check)

The legal basis for this initiative is Article 43(2) (agriculture and fisheries), Article 114 (internal market), Article 168(4)(b) (food safety) and Article 191(2) (environment) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Given the multidimensional nature of the sustainability concept (social, environmental and economic), the inherent complexity of food systems, and the global dimension of the problems to be tackled, actions at Member State level alone cannot address the range of challenges food systems are facing and will face in the future, at EU and global levels. Actions at European Union level are therefore necessary to ensure policy coherence in the European Union and in relations with third countries, and provide the necessary instruments to reach the objectives. EU policies have a powerful role to play in facilitating implementation, accelerating and supporting change. It is essential that such EU policies are complemented by coordination and support of Member State actions at EU level, in order to achieve the objectives of sustainable food systems.

B. What does the initiative aim to achieve and how

The overall objective of the strategy is to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable food system that should have a neutral or positive environmental impact, is capable to adapt to climate change and at the same time contributes to climate change mitigation, ensures food security and creates a food environment which makes healthy diets the easy choice for EU citizens. Such a food system requires economic sustainability, in particular of the primary producers. This implies competitive primary production (agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture), manufacturing and retail sectors in the EU preserving farmers’ and fishers’ income.

More specifically, the strategy will set out how to:

·Ensure sustainable primary production;

·Stimulate sustainable food processing, retail, hospitality and food services’ practices;

·Promote sustainable food consumption, facilitating the shift towards healthy, sustainable diets;

·Reduce food loss and waste.

The strategy will set out relevant ambitions and actions to stimulate sustainable food production and to create new business models for food producers to thrive in a sustainable food system. The strategy will include measures to significantly reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides, as well as the use of fertilizers and antibiotics. These actions will go hand in hand with actions seeking an improvement of animal welfare. The Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy will be instrumental in implementing the Farm to Fork Strategy. The Common Agriculture Policy funded National Strategic Plans will have to reflect the ambition of the Green Deal.

To promote sustainable food consumption, the Commission will, amongst others, propose actions to help consumers choose healthy and sustainable diets by providing better food information such as on where the food comes from and its nutritional value.

The implementation of the strategy will be enabled by developing a coherent European Union policy and regulatory framework for sustainable food systems and by stimulating research, innovation and financial investments to provide solutions for sustainable food systems and market opportunities. A framework will be developed to monitor the implementation of the strategy.

C. Better regulation

Consultation of citizens and stakeholders

Consultations with all stakeholders concerned will ensure that the future Farm to Fork strategy will address relevant issues. Consultations will aim to collect relevant information on the challenges encountered by primary producers, food producers, processing and retail and by citizens. In particular, consultations will aim to identify the main gaps that could be addressed at European Union level and to identify areas where the Union can have added value.

Member States will be consulted through dedicated workshops and expert group meetings.

Stakeholders will be consulted through targeted stakeholders’ consultations via:

·a workshop in the context of the Scientific Advice Mechanism’s opinion “Towards an EU Sustainable Food System” (to be published in Spring 2020);

·a dedicated Advisory Group of the Food Chain; 

·the Civil Dialogue Group on the common agricultural policy; 

·Advisory Councils for fisheries and aquaculture.

The Strategy will be elaborated taking into account the views expressed by other institutions (European Parliament through own initiative reports, European Committee of the Regions and Economic and Social Committee).

Consultations with a wide range of stakeholders and citizens will take place after the publication of the Strategy in the context of the elaboration of individual initiatives proposed. This will include, amongst others, discussions with the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste, the EU Animal Welfare Platform and via Citizen’s Dialogues in Member States.

Evidence base and data collection

Evidence on the environmental, social and economic challenges illustrated above is widely available in the scientific literature and there is broad consensus on it. The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda to which the European Union has committed is based on the same evidence.

The strategy will take into account the results of ongoing evaluations and Commission’s reports such as on Health Claims, Plant Protection Products and Pesticides Residues, Front-of-Pack nutrition labelling, Sustainable Use of Pesticides and Animal Welfare Strategy. The strategy will be accompanied by other Commission documents relevant for the design of future actions.

No impact assessment will be carried out ahead of the adoption of the strategy. Relevant Better Regulation tools will be applied to the individual initiatives of the strategy. Impact assessments will be carried out where such initiatives are expected to produce significant environmental, social or economic impacts.