A Food Policy for Europe

The author contends that the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is insufficient for building sustainable food systems because it is too narrow in scope and focused on outdated productivist goals. The text proposes a 'Common Food Policy' to align disparate policies across health, environment, and trade, bridge the gap between EU-level governance and local experimentation, and shift from short-term economic priorities to long-term ecological and public health goals. It further suggests that such a policy could revive 'food democracy' by involving citizens and reducing the influence of agribusiness lobbies, thereby rebuilding the legitimacy of the European Union.

• Current EU policies are highly sectorialised and contradictory, where goals in one area are undermined by another; for example, CAP rural development for small farms is countered by food safety regulations that create an unaffordable regulatory burden, and climate pledges are undermined by policies encouraging industrialised production.
• There is a disconnect between EU-level governance and local-level innovations, such as Food Policy Councils in municipalities, which prevents the systematic scaling of sustainable territorial food systems.
• The European food system is locked into a 'productivist' model from the 1950s focused on low-cost, high-volume production, which now contributes to a public health crisis where over half of EU adults are overweight or obese and diet-related diseases cause 70% of deaths.
• Between 2003 and 2013, one in four farms disappeared from the European landscape despite the total farming area remaining stable, indicating a failure to support small-scale farm viability.
• The transition to sustainable agriculture is hindered by a 'tyranny of the short-term' driven by electoral cycles, investor demands for immediate results, and retail expectations for cheap, year-round food variety.
• A 'people's food policy' is proposed to reclaim control from agribusiness and farm lobbies, leveraging existing citizen engagement in local food initiatives to rebuild the legitimacy of the European Union.

APA

De Schutter, O. (2017). A Food Policy for Europe. Green European Journal. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/a-food-policy-for-europe/

Chicago

De Schutter, Olivier. A Food Policy for Europe. Green European Journal, 2017. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/a-food-policy-for-europe/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=De Schutter |first1=Olivier |title=A Food Policy for Europe |publisher=Green European Journal |date=26 September 2017 |url=https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/a-food-policy-for-europe/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{deschutter2017food, author = {De Schutter, Olivier}, title = {{A Food Policy for Europe}}, publisher = {Green European Journal}, year = {2017}, month = sep, url = {https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/a-food-policy-for-europe/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }