20 May 2020 FACE welcomes the new Farm to Fork Strategy

On 20 May 2020, the European Commission presented the Farm to Fork (F2F) and the Biodiversity strategies. Both are at the heart of the EU’s Green Deal. Amongst other important initiatives, F2F aims at reducing the overall use and risk of chemical pesticides by 50% and the use of more hazardous pesticides by 50% together with the reduction of fertilizers by 20% by 2030. The role of organic farming is also recognised, and the Commission set the ambitious target of at least 25% of the EU’s agricultural land under organic farming by 2030.

As underlined in the document, the transition to sustainable food systems will be supported by a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that must be aligned with the Green Deal. The CAP post 2020 will provide the framework Member States (MS) must refer to when drafting their national CAP Strategic Plans.

The Commission will assure coherence by making recommendations to each Member State on the nine specific objectives of the CAP before MS formally submit their draft CAP Strategic Plans. Further, the EC will pay attention to the targets stemming from the F2F Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. It will ask MS to set explicit national values for those targets, considering their specific situation.

With regards to the next CAP, FACE fully supports the Commission in that: “the key provisions of the proposals must be maintained in the negotiating process, and certain improvements and practical initiatives should be developed”. Now it is up to the European Parliament to make sure that those provisions will be an integral part of the new EU farm policy.

Millions of European citizens already benefit from locally available food through hunting, fishing and gathering fungi and plants. In this context, Europe’s 7 million hunters have been operating a “field to fork” system for generations, benefitting from healthy and locally sourced game meat.

For more information for FACE’s work on agriculture, see: face.eu/agriculture