Today, the European Commission launched its long-awaited Vision for Agriculture and Food. This comes at a time when Europe’s agricultural and food sectors are grappling with, and contributing to, the severe impacts of extreme weather, soil degradation, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss. At the same time, millions of farmers face rising production costs, low farmgate prices, excessive bureaucracy, and pressure from entrenched players in the food system.
Rising food prices, along with concerns over quality and sustainability, are top priorities for European consumers. CAN Europe acknowledges the achievements of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture in this regard, but stresses the urgent need for a just agroecological transition. This transition must not only support ambitious climate targets but also ensure fairness for farmers, rural communities, consumers, and society as a whole.
“We welcome the Vision’s recognition of the key climate challenges and contributions facing the agriculture-food value chain, such as heavier droughts or floods” said Sven Harmeling, Head of Climate at CAN Europe. “When it comes to agriculture’s contribution to a 2040 climate target, CAN Europe advocates for binding sectoral targets to send a clear signal to the entire value chain, producers, retailers and consumers, that emissions must decline. Financial incentives and support to farmers and rural communities need to be shifted towards agro-ecological solutions which offer immense potential for a climate-resilient, low-emission and productive food systems, rather than continuing to heavily subsidise fossil fuel based fertilisers or large-scale livestock farms, which by far contribute most to the emissions.”
In a recent letter to the European Commissioner Christophe Hansen, CAN Europe laid out its key expectations in detail for the Vision for Agriculture and Food from a climate perspective.
