EU Parliament saves Farm to Fork’s integrity but concedes on Biodiversity

IFOAM Organics Europe welcomes the European Parliament’s support to the Farm to Fork Strategy as the right policy direction to make European agriculture more resilient and independent. The resolution on food security adopted in 24 March plenary is a positive political signal, especially considering the weeks of intense lobbying to undermine the EU’s ambition to make agriculture more sustainable.

«The relevant policy direction» against further crisis

IFOAM Organics Europe’s President Jan Plagge said: «The Farm to Fork strategy remains, now more than ever, the relevant policy direction to adapt our farming system to current and future crises. The war against Ukraine raises legitimate concerns over price increases and availability of certain agriculture inputs, namely cereals for animal feed and synthetic fertilisers. It also forces us to re-think our food production system to make it more independent from external inputs, less input intensive and more resilient».

«Incentivising and helping farmers to upscale existing agroecological solutions should be policymakers’ priority»

«Practical agronomic solutions already exist to achieve these goals, while ensuring both food security for all Europeans and beyond, as well as profitability for farmers. Incentivising and helping farmers to upscale existing agroecological solutions should be policymakers’ priority. With support of the Common Agricultural Policy and the EU Farm to Fork strategy, it is possible to produce healthy food in sufficient quantity without synthetic pesticides and fertilisers, while preserving biodiversity, storing carbon in soils and making our food production more resilient to the increasing impacts of climate change», adds Plagge.

Although the Parliament saved the EU Farm to Fork Strategy’s integrity, IFOAM Organics Europe regrets that it has made concessions on key elements for biodiversity, supporting a temporal authorisation for the use of pesticides on Ecological Focus Areas.

• Further information at www.organicseurope.bio

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