Transforming Europe’s food system Assessing the EU policy mix, EEA report, 2022

Food systems in Europe and across the world are currently unsustainable. Globally, they account for almost one‑third of GHG emissions, drive biodiversity loss and harmful health impacts, and fail to ensure fair economic returns and livelihoods for all actors. According to the EAT‑Lancet Commission (Willett et al., 2019), addressing these failings and achieving healthy diets within planetary boundaries will require nothing less than a ‘great food transformation’. Recognising the scale of change needed, in 2020 the EU adopted the Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, with the goal of enabling and accelerating ‘the transition to a fair, healthy and environmentally‑friendly food system’ (EC, 2020c).

While the need to transform Europe’s food system is clearly acknowledged in both research and EU policy, the challenges are equally obvious. Europe’s food system is hugely complex and interwoven with its societies, economies, cultures and landscapes. Such interdependencies create diverse barriers and resistance to change, which are often magnified by the influence of powerful vested interests. (Source: document “Executive Summary”).