Posted on September, 27 2023

The EU’s food and farming system seems to be in a state of perpetual crisis, with climate-related, geopolitical, or sanitary shocks interacting to put producers, supply chains, and consumers under increasing pressure. The response to these challenges has so far focused on ad hoc and often short-term solutions. However, it is increasingly clear that transforming food systems is essential to safeguard our capacity to produce food in the long term, end hunger and improve diets, and address the multiple global environmental crises.

This can only be achieved through a structural transformation of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Supporting a just transition towards genuine social, economic, and environmental sustainability in the farming sector should be the raison d’être of the EU’s future agricultural policy. This requires a clear shift, to repurpose the budget, instruments, and administrative systems of the CAP towards this new overarching objective and vision, articulated through a Common Agricultural, Food and Land Stewardship Policy.