Sustainable food systems Archives

To tackle the problem of food waste, German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir is looking to decriminalise the practice of rescuing food from rubbish containers, including outside supermarkets, called dumpster diving.

Governments gathered at the UN biodiversity conference agreed to halve the risk of pesticides globally, echoing EU ambitions. Meanwhile, member states endorsed new impact study on the bloc's plans for pesticide reduction, which critics slammed as a delaying tactic.

Meat that has been fed with deforestation-linked soy products will still be found on European supermarket shelves under the new EU deforestation law, prompting outrage among EU agrifood stakeholders who warn this harms the environment while detrimenting EU producers.

Sales of antibiotics used for animal use have almost halved between 2011-2021, according to a new report issued by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), putting the EU on track to attain its ambitions, but with a warning that the sector should not become complacent.

The sustainable food system chapter in the recently signed EU-New Zealand trade agreement should become an example for the rest of the world, New Zealand’s agriculture and trade minister Damien O’Connor told EURACTIV.

The European Parliament’s largest political group, the centre-right EPP, has warned the European Commission against overstepping its mark on its plans to slash the use and risk of pesticides in half, vowing to push back on the proposals as tensions reach breaking point.

A coalition of NGOs has joined forces to lambast the European Commission’s consultation process on its upcoming policy initiative on gene editing technologies - but the EU executive insists that a broad range of voices have already been heard on the contentious issue.

EU member states have called for a new impact assessment on the European Commission’s proposal to slash the use and risk of pesticides, citing concerns over food security and resilience, but the EU executive has stood firm in its convictions. 

EU agriculture ministers are pushing the European Commission to relax rules on new genomic techniques (NGTs), arguing this is needed to bolster the sector in the face of increasing droughts, climate change and yield losses.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski has offered his tentative support to the idea of creating an EU-wide fertilisers strategy to help protect farmers against potential future shortages.

Lawmakers and stakeholders have criticised the European Commission for not placing enough emphasis on the potential impact of its proposal to halve both the use and risk of chemical pesticides by 2030 on food production. 

The European Commission adopted new rules designed to increase the availability of and access to biological plant protection products on Wednesday (31 August) as part of efforts to reduce reliance on chemical pesticides.

Creating healthy and sustainable ecosystems in Europe is key to ensuring food security, as heatwaves worsen and Russia blocks grain exports out of Ukraine, the environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius told EURACTIV.

G7 leaders meeting in Germany this weekend must start to put the world food system on a more resilient footing, writes Olivier De Schutter.

It would be wise to forget about the EU’s flagship sustainable food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy, throughout the Czech Republic’s presidency to instead focus on increasing food production, Štěpán Černý, director-general for European Affairs for the Czech government told EURACTIV.

The Green Deal must remain a key priority of the agricultural sector in spite of the war in Ukraine, according to Czech agriculture minister Zdeněk Nekula, who is preparing to take over the reins as chair of the EU Agrifish Council in July.

Spreading fears of food shortages is “irresponsible and dishonest”, according to European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, who accused critics of using the war as a "pretext" to derail the EU’s green farming ambitions.

The war in Ukraine has “pressed the pause button” on the EU’s flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy, but the long term ambition for the sector remains unchanged, according to the EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.

German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir has joined the European Commission in dubbing agriculture a security issue. Making agriculture more sustainable and resilient is an important step towards more independence from Russia, he said in an address to German lawmakers.

Brazilian environmental groups urged the European Union on Monday to pass aggressive legislation banning all imports linked to deforestation, criticizing "gaps" in a draft bill.

Ongoing global warming will likely put a major strain on food systems and could make millions worldwide subject to food insecurity, a new report published today by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds.

By 2030, the European Commission wants a complete overhaul of Europe’s natural landscapes – switching from unhealthy ecosystems at risk of emitting carbon to restored homes for biodiversity that capture and store carbon.

Member states are divided on the details of a proposal designed to prevent imports into Europe linked with deforestation, despite a concerted push from the French, who have placed the file as a top priority during its rotating EU presidency.