EU Commission stalls on sustainable food

Published 22/09/2014

Disappointingly, the European Commission has yet to publish its communication on sustainable food. This long overdue report should outline how Europe plans to produce food for everyone sustainably.

EU Commission stalls on sustainable food

Our Chief Policy Advisor, Peter Stevenson, said “The Commission’s long-awaited Communication on sustainable food has still not been published. We have tried to fill this gap by producing a report: A Sustainable Food Policy for Europe.

“It is what the Commission’s Communication should be saying. The report is based on publications by bodies such as FAO and UNEP and on the findings of a wide range of scientific research. It primarily focuses on the role of livestock in the food system.”

A sustainable food policy

Our current food system needs a radical re-think to move away from factory farming which devastates the environment, our health and keeps animals confined in inhumane conditions.

Our report outlines how Europe must adopt policies which:

Provide food of good nutritional quality and promote diets that support good health
Achieve food security, ensuring that all people have access to sufficient food
Be environmentally sustainable as our ability to feed the growing world population is dependent on the continuing availability of healthy and plentiful soils, land, water and biodiversity
Ensure that animals are farmed to high welfare standards.

Food policy needs to take an integrated approach, ensuring that one objective is not achieved at the expense of another.