Concepts for a sustainable EU food system

Food systems, globally and in the EU, need urgent and significant transformation to become sustainable. The Farm to Fork Strategy, a cornerstone of the European Green Deal, foresees the development of a proposal for a legislative framework, to facilitate the move towards food system sustainability. The European Commission initiated a project to explore possible building blocks for the legislative framework, based on a participatory and system-based approach developed and facilitated by the Joint Research Centre. The intention of the exercise was to generate a non-binding source of collective advice from a broad international group of people with in-depth knowledge on different aspects of the EU food system. Participants emphasised the need for urgent action, to refocus the food system on all aspects of sustainability, and to address food system actors’ agency, empowerment and responsibility. They identified and explored as possible relevant elements for a legislative framework a framework to assess sustainability, transparency throughout the food system, policy coherence and multi-level governance, a process to deal with the consequences of the transition, and international trade. The results of these discussions, reflecting the views of the participants, are summarised in this report.

BOCK Anne-Katrin; BONTOUX Laurent ; RUDKIN Jennifer-Ellen

2022-01-31

Publications Office of the European Union

JRC126575

978-92-76-43727-7 (online)

1831-9424 (online)

EUR 30894 EN , OP KJ-NA-30894-EN-N (online)