The European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and Agriculture (AGRI) committees agreed on the EU’s ‘Farm to Fork’ (F2F) strategy for sustainable food systems on Thursday 9 September in Brussels, by electronic vote, to reconcile high environmental ambitions - as required by the European Green Deal - with the need for economic sustainability of agriculture and the entire supply chain.
All compromise amendments - 48 in total - from the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, ECR and Greens/EFA groups were voted on the draft joint own-initiative report by Anja Hazekamp (GUE/NGL, Netherlands) and Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italy) on this European Green Deal proposal, presented last January (see EUROPE 12785/7, 12632/19).
“We have behind us a month-long joint process which has now almost reached its climax”, stressed Norbert Lins (EPP, Germany) ahead of the vote on the amendments. The vote on the final report will take place on Friday 10 September.
Through their amendments, MEPs welcome the ambitions and objectives of the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy as an important step towards ensuring a sustainable, fair, healthy, animal-friendly, more regional, diversified food system - essential to achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Transition support. The European Commission is invited to rapidly translate this strategy into legislative and non-legislative actions, accompanied by appropriate financial support mechanisms for the transition, especially for primary producers.
MEPs stress that this strategy is crucial to bring the food system, including animal and plant production, back within the planet’s limits. But they also stress the importance of ensuring decent working conditions and employment, and fair opportunities throughout the food value chain.
Involvement of all stakeholders. MEPs call for the obligatory involvement of all players in the supply chain - farmers, businesses and consumers - including adequate consumer information and agricultural policies that support farmers.
They insist on the need to ensure coherence between the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy and the objectives of the European Green Deal, notably in the areas of climate, biodiversity, zero pollution and health.
They highlight that maintaining and enhancing biodiversity is crucial to safeguarding the EU’s and the world’s food security and that consistency with the EU’s 2030 biodiversity strategy is essential. They also advocate consistency with other policies such as the CAP, trade policy and the EU budget.
MEPs call on Member States and the EU to take a holistic approach to avoid the implementation of some of the F2F strategy’s objectives leading to the relocation of part of European agricultural production to countries with lower environmental requirements.
Impact assessments. MEPs believe that ex-ante scientific impact assessments of legislative proposals and the F2F strategy’s financial targets should include robust environmental assessments, covering all three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic and social including health). They should take into account cumulative effects and include the cost of inaction in terms of immediate and long-term impact on human health, the environment, biodiversity and public health.
Pesticides. MEPs believe that the targets for reducing pesticides, nutrient losses from organic and mineral sources (the word ‘fertiliser’ has disappeared) and the sale of antimicrobials should be binding and are achievable, but that their achievement depends on the availability of safer, effective and efficient alternatives.
It advocates implementation of the objectives through preventive approaches, such as organic and agro-environmental practices, sustainable agricultural practices, precision farming and integrated crop and pest management.
See the amendments voted: https://bit.ly/3tpjVM0 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)