The EU鈥檚 Farm-to-Fork strategy needs to be reframed to avoid an unjustified focus on food as simply a commodity, according to a group of top European experts whose independent science advice was used to inform the strategy last year.
In an today (11 March) a team of experts chaired by Professor Peter Jackson, co-director of the Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of 葫芦影业 write:
鈥淭he European Commission鈥檚 Farm to Fork strategy seeks to facilitate a transition towards a sustainable food system. Though acknowledging food systems鈥 complex interdependencies, the strategy still addresses food as a commodity instead of a human right or common good 鈥 and illustrates how different framings of food may shape the development of food policy.
鈥淭hough intended to shape the Commission鈥檚 new 鈥楩arm to Fork鈥 (F2F) strategy, the Chief Scientific Advisors鈥 recommendations have been followed only partially, and the strategy remains largely caught up in a 鈥榝ood as commodity鈥 narrative.鈥
The article goes on to criticise the strategy for failing to engage sufficiently with this aspect of the evidence, demonstrating how the way the issue is framed (for instance, food as a human right or food as commons) results in very different policy outcomes.
The authors of this article are the same group of experts who co-wrote an Evidence Review Report last year for SAPEA, part of the European Commission鈥檚 Scientific Advice Mechanism. Their report, , analysed the latest scientific evidence on the transition to a sustainable food system, and informed policy recommendations made by the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the College of European Commissioners.
The SAPEA working group was chaired by Professor Peter Jackson, co-director of the Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of 葫芦影业. Professor Jackson is the lead author of the , along with Dr Marta Guadalupe Rivera-Ferre at the University of Catalonia.
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SAPEA has received funding from the European Union鈥檚 Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 737432. The information and opinions on this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission.
Media contact: Toby Wardman, SAPEA head of communications, toby.wardman@sapea.info, +32 483699625