Against this backdrop, 286 organisations have issued an open letter urging European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to ensure the Commission proposal is presented by September 2023, as planned.

“The fact that this letter has received such overwhelming support from all corners of Europe shows that people need this law. The way we produce and consume food is harming our health and degrading our environment to a level that we cannot afford – indeed, this is already now impacting Europe’s production capacity. We need to make our food systems more sustainable and we need to do it now,” said Giulia Riedo, Agriculture and Sustainable Food Policy Officer.

Currently, food systems are responsible for 34% of global CHG emissions and for the unhealthy diets behind the deaths of 1 in 5 Europeans.

In 2021, the European Commission announced a flagship EU legislative framework for sustainable food systems for late 2023 as part of the Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, with the aim of integrating sustainability into existing and future food-related policies and setting a clear path for all the actors in the food value chain.

However, recent developments have shown how some stakeholders and policy-makers are instrumentalising the current geopolitical context and scare-mongering about alleged risks to Europe’s food security to weaken the F2F strategy, which could hinder this framework law.

Image: By The All-Nite Images from NY, NY, USA – Manhattan, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75990051