Farm to Fork Strategy & Beating Cancer Plan

25 May 2024

The Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy for Sustainable food is a key component of the European Green Deal. The F2F seeks to increase EU’s organic farming area and to significantly reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides, as well the use of fertilisers and antibiotics.

The F2F plans to strengthen the efforts to tackle climate change, to protect the environment and to preserve biodiversity. This aims the reduction of the environmental impact of the food processing and retail sectors by taking action on transport, storage, packaging and food waste.

The strategy also wants to promote sustainable food consumption and to encourage affordable healthy food for all. Likewise, there is the will to explore new ways to give consumers better information, on details such as the food’s origin, its nutritional value and its environmental footprint.

Origin, especially for meat and dairy products, is one of the first consumers’ concern when they buy food. In light of this, SAFE would like to invite the Commission to extend the EU origin labelling requirements to all meat and milk related products, including meat used as an ingredient and milk used in dairy products.

It is essential for the EU to provide Member States with common guidelines for healthy diet that should be used to provide public authorities as well as individual consumers with reliant information. We insist on the need for transparency in the elaboration of those guidelines. They should be developed based on the work of independent experts and adapted to each Member State according to its geographical and cultural particularities. We believe those guidelines should address the health issues related to the overconsumption of animal products and promote an increased consumption of plant-based proteins and a decrease of animal proteins.

Furthermore, the EC should dedicate funding for educational programmes raising children and parents’ awareness about the importance of a healthy diet and the health consequences attached to excessive consumption of sugar, salt, and fat. Nutrition classes should become a mandatory requirement for primary and secondary schools’ plan of studies.

We also believe that it is essential to amend the Audiovisual Media Services Directive to forbid any audiovisual marketing of unhealthy food products during broadcasting hours with a large children audience. The current text is only relying on self-regulation which is not sufficient to ensure that children’s exposure to unhealthy products is significantly reduced.

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