Ukraine crisis forces EU to overhaul food strategy

The European Union's sustainable food strategy is to be reviewed because of widespread opposition across Europe's food and agriculture sector, and also the ongoing economic impact of the Ukraine conflict, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying it was based on a pre-Ukraine crisis world.

In addition to the widely-publicized dependence of much of Europe on Russian energy supplies, the conflict in Ukraine has also sent the cost of fertilizer and crops, such as maize, soaring-at the moment, half of the maize used in the EU comes from Ukraine.

The Farming Life website calls Ukraine the breadbasket of Europe, and says it is the world's largest producer of sunflower oil, and fourth-largest producer of potatoes, exporting crops not just to the EU but also to China, Turkey, India, and Africa.

In light of the disruption these supply lines will face, Europe needs to review its approach to agriculture, with widespread complaints about the proposed new policy coming from Spain and Italy, and France, where Macron is running for re-election.

Two years ago, it was agreed that there should be a new bloc-wide approach to farming, to get carbon emissions down to net-zero by the year 2050, but the urgency of the new situation means this may have to change, with EU agriculture ministers meeting on Monday to discuss this.

"There is a desire to make sure that the objectives we have in our public policy are consistent with the need for food security... and sovereignty," an EU diplomat told the Financial Times.

The EU food strategy, known as Farm to Fork, is part of the European Green Deal and was billed as "aiming to make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly".

"Food systems cannot be resilient to crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, if they are not sustainable," the official description of the policy said.

"We need to redesign our food systems which today account for nearly one-third of global (greenhouse gas) emissions, consume large amounts of natural resources, result in biodiversity loss and negative health impacts (due to both under-and over-nutrition), and do not allow fair economic returns and livelihoods for all actors, in particular for primary producers."

One of the most controversial innovations suggested by Pekka Pesonen, secretary-general of the EU farmers' lobby group Copa-Cogeca, is to boost productivity in an emissions-friendly way by allowing gene editing of plants and animals.

"Roughly speaking, two-thirds of the productivity improvements will come from better genetic material, our crops and livestock," he said.

European agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski is on record as saying Farm to Fork is the best long-term solution to Europe's agricultural challenges, but because of the recent disruption, he has proposed some temporary alterations to its terms.

However, pressure groups are calling on him to resist being steered too far away from its values.

"Watering down the Farm to Fork strategy and its policies will maintain Europe's dependence on non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels, and will go against what is needed right now to secure food for all," said a letter from the Food Policy Coalition.